MeadWestvaco Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component MeadWestvaco (NYSE:MWV) will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30, 2013. MeadWestvaco provides packaging solutions to clients in the healthcare, personal and beauty care, food, beverage, tobacco, media and entertainment, and home and garden industries.

MeadWestvaco Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for profit of 19 cents per share, a decline of 26.9% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved up from 18 cents. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved up. It has been unchanged at 19 cents during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting net income of $1.38 per share, a decline of 28.1% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: The company met estimates last quarter after beating the forecasts in the prior two. In the third quarter, the company reported profit of 39 cents per share versus a mean estimate of net income of 39 cents per share. In the second quarter, the company beat estimates by 7 cents.

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A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 56.4% to $51 million (28 cents a share) from $117 million (67 cents a share) the year earlier, meeting analyst expectations. Revenue fell 14.9% to $1.4 billion from $1.64 billion.

Here’s how MeadWestvaco traded following its last earnings report 3 months ago and leading up to its upcoming earnings report this week: