Earnings Preview: Walgreen Company (WAG), Monsanto Company (MON), Constellation Brands Inc (STZ)

With only days left in the calendar year's third quarter, the first handful of early company earnings reports are trickling in. Of course, there are some companies that still haven’t reported their results for the second quarter of 2013, and some that are already unveiling their earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013.

At this point, analysts are projecting earnings growth of 3.3 percent and revenue growth of 2.6 percent for the S&P 500 for the third quarter, according to FactSet. As in the second quarter, analysts expect the financial sector to lead the way in third-quarter earnings growth, mainly driven by big banks.

Rising home prices and higher interest rates are hurting the momentum of new-home sales as two national home builders reported this week that their pace of new orders slowed in their most recent quarter.

Lennar Corporation (NYSE:LEN), the No. 3 U.S. homebuilder, posted a 14 percent gain for new orders. That’s lower than analysts’ expectations of a 24 percent gain. Its smaller rival, KB Home (NYSE: KBH), said new orders declined by 8.6 percent, in contrast to analysts’ expectations of a 10 percent gain from a year earlier.

Looking ahead to the fourth quarter, the current estimate is for 10.2 percent earnings growth, which appears optimistic, given projections for only 0.9 percent revenue growth. “If these are the final growth rates for the quarter, it will tie the mark for the largest difference between earnings and revenue growth since the first quarter of 2011, also 9.3 percentage points,” FactSet senior earnings analyst John Butters said.

We ran a screen and produced a list of three notable companies set to report their earnings between Sept. 30 and Oct. 4. We've highlighted their expected reporting dates and times, along with analysts' earnings-per-share (fully reported) and revenue estimates from Reuters, as well as the stocks' year-to-date performances.

Tuesday Before Markets Open, or BMO:

Walgreen Company (NYSE: WAG), together with its subsidiaries, operates the drugstore chain in the U.S. The company has a market capitalization of $51.89 billion. It is expected to report FY 2013 fourth-quarter EPS of 59 cents on revenue of $17.95 billion, compared with EPS of 39 cents on revenue of $17.07 billion in the year-ago period. Walgreen is trading at around $54.88 a share. So far this year, the stock has gained 48.4 percent.

Wednesday BMO:

Monsanto Company (NYSE: MON) along with its subsidiaries, is a provider of agricultural products for farmers. The company has a market capitalization of $56.31 billion. It is expected to report a loss of 41 cents a share in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2013 on revenue of $2.24 billion, compared with a loss of 42 cents a share on revenue of $2.11 billion in the year-ago period. Monsanto is trading at around $105.35 a share. So far this year, the stock has gained 11.4 percent.

Thursday BMO:

Constellation Brands Inc. (NYSE: STZ) is a wine company. The company has a market capitalization of $10.66 billion. It is expected to report FY 2014 second-quarter EPS of 87 cents on revenue of $1.53 billion, compared with EPS of 67 cents on revenue of $698.50 million in the year-ago period. Constellation is trading at around $57.70 a share. So far this year, the stock has gained 63.0 percent.