Broadcom, Adobe, Oracle, British American Tobacco and Berkeley

Earnings season is ramping up for the fourth quarter, with updates from key companies worldwide providing insights into how specific markets are performing.

Investors will receive updates next week from several high-profile companies, including Broadcom (AVGO), Adobe (ADBE), Oracle (ORCL), British American Tobacco (BATS.L) and Berkeley (BKG.L).

Here’s what to look out for:

Wall Street expects Broadcom to post higher earnings and revenues for the quarter to October 2025, with analysts positioning the chipmaker as a continuing beneficiary of rapid AI infrastructure spending.

The company is forecast to report quarterly earnings of $1.87 per share, a year on year increase of 31.7%. Revenues are expected to reach $17.5bn (£13.1bn), up 24.5% from the same period a year earlier.

Citi (C) and Goldman Sachs (GS) both signalled that Broadcom is set for what one analyst described as another period of “beating estimates and raising guidance”, citing Google’s (GOOG) move to open its TPU (tensor processing unit) capacity to external customers and strong AI spending more broadly.

Google’s TPUs are custom-designed ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits) built to accelerate machine learning tasks, particularly matrix operations essential for deep learning, powering Google’s own AI.

Citi said in its report that Broadcom’s F4Q25 revenue is expected to reach $17.5bn, a 9% quarter on quarter increase and above market consensus. The bank attributed the uplift primarily to continued growth in AI related sales.

On profitability, Citi expects earnings per share excluding stock-based compensation (SBC) of $1.96, above the consensus estimate of $1.87. Citi also said that Broadcom has surpassed both market expectations and its own forecasts for four consecutive quarters.

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Forward guidance is seen as the most closely watched element of the upcoming release. Citi anticipates F1Q26 revenue guidance above market expectations forecasting $18bn compared with a market consensus of $18.4bn, describing its view as slightly conservative but supported by expected upside from Google’s increased volume. Gross margin is projected to remain at 76%.

In the previous quarter the semiconductor manufacturer reported $1.69 earnings per share, ahead of consensus forecasts of $1.66. Revenue reached $15.95bn, exceeding analyst expectations of $15.82bn. Broadcom delivered a return on equity of 36.60% and a net margin of 31.59%. Quarterly revenue rose 22% from a year earlier.

Adobe stock price will be in the spotlight next week as it continues to lag behind in the growing AI industry. Barclays (BARC.L) has cut its price target on the company to $415 from $465 while maintaining an Overweight rating ahead of the group’s fourth quarter fiscal 2025 results.

The bank expects Adobe to report about $571m from Neural Network Digital Media ARR, with an upside scenario of $600m to $610m based on favourable web traffic indicators.

Barclays estimates that Adobe’s total ARR could reach about $25.8bn by the end of fiscal 2025, implying year on year growth of roughly 11.5%, ahead of the company’s original guidance of about 11% issued at the start of the year. The projection is consistent with Adobe’s 10.67% revenue growth over the past twelve months, supported by gross profit margins of 89.14%.

The bank added that Adobe’s pending acquisition of Semrush is expected to close in the first half of fiscal 2026, making it unlikely to feature in FY26 guidance. Barclays (BARC.L) said the deal could add one to two percentage points to FY26 revenue growth and be roughly neutral to positive for earnings per share.

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Barclays also pointed to a 13% quarter on quarter increase in Express mobile app downloads, although it does not expect Adobe to update its artificial intelligence ARR metric after its strong showing last quarter.

Analysts expect Oracle to report adjusted earnings of $1.64 per share for the quarter, an increase from the $1.47 per share recorded in the same period last year. The forecast implies earnings growth of 11.6% year on year. Revenue is projected to rise even faster, with analysts expecting a 15% increase.

Citi analyst Tyler Radke said the “concerns around Oracle’s debt health” are “overstated”, adding that he is looking ahead to the company’s earnings report and expects it to bring “more evidence that AI infrastructure demand is broad based with another strong bookings number”.

He added that the company could present a refreshed nine figure number for remaining performance obligations. The metric stood at $455bn in the fiscal first quarter, and Oracle has since stated that it has been growing by about $2bn a day. Radke said his estimate of about $600bn may therefore be conservative.

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Investors are expected to focus on Oracle’s guidance for the coming quarters. The company’s outlook often influences the stock price as much as the quarterly numbers themselves.

Oracle has been benefiting from rising demand for its cloud computing services. The company supplies database software and cloud infrastructure to businesses around the world.

Shares in British American Tobacco (BAT) are trading near seven year highs, supported by June’s upgrade to revenue growth guidance, an enhanced share buyback this year and a long record of consistent dividend increases.

Sales of shares in ITC (ITCHOTELS.BO), the Indian conglomerate listed in Mumbai, have also underpinned cash returns.

Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth of AJ Bell said the company is “overcoming ongoing declines in cigarette volumes with higher prices, cost efficiencies and growth in next generation products”, adding that analysts will benchmark this full year update against the upgraded guidance issued by chief executive Tadeu Marroco earlier this year.

That guidance set constant currency revenue growth of between 1% and 2% for 2025 and adjusted operating profit growth of 1.5% to 2.5% excluding Canada, where prior litigation settlements have been adjusted downward.

On a headline basis for 2025 analysts expect sales of £25.5bn, up 2% on a constant basis, and adjusted operating profit of £11.4bn, also up 2% year on year. Even with the reduced share count from buybacks analysts still anticipate a slight dip in headline adjusted earnings per share for the year.

The AJ Bell team noted that analysts and shareholders will be watching closely for any discussion of new excise duties in Australia and Bangladesh and the impact of currency movements. They added that BAT may or may not choose to comment on the outlook for 2026 at this stage, saying “the company often prefers to keep its powder dry until full year results in February”.

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BAT’s medium term goal is to generate £50bn in free cash flow between 2024 and 2030, a little more than half of its current market capitalisation. This is intended to fund cash returns to investors through dividends and buybacks, alongside any further sales of shares in ITC.

The AJ Bell analysts argued that BAT’s capacity to keep growing its dividend continues to surprise sceptics, saying “cash flow still provides comfort for both the dividend and the buybacks despite global stick volumes slipping.” They added that the £50bn cash flow target “could help sustain the company’s shareholder friendly approach”.

Shares in housebuilder Berkeley remain no higher than they were in 2017, held back in recent years by higher mortgage rates, weaker consumer confidence, input cost inflation and the building safety levy, which is intended to help fund fire safety and other defects in high rise buildings.

Analysts will be watching to see whether chief executive Rob Perrins addresses the budget’s so called mansion tax and whether he believes these could influence demand for Berkeley homes, whose average selling price last year was £593000.

Russ Mould, Danni Hewson and Dan Coatsworth of AJ Bell said Berkeley has been navigating “a difficult mix of policy headwinds and affordability constraints”, adding that the market will be looking for confirmation of the company’s existing profit guidance following an uneventful trading update in September.

That guidance is for pre-tax income of £450m in each of the years to April 2026 and 2027. The benchmark for these first half results is the £275m earned in the first six months of last year although Berkeley has already indicated that profits will be split fairly evenly this year between the first and second halves.

The AJ Bell experts said that analysts and shareholders will scrutinise several key performance indicators when assessing both the first half and the outlook for the remainder of the year.

They highlighted completions and prices, where last year’s first half figures were 2103 new homes and £600000; input costs; forward sales, which stood at £1.5bn a year ago; and the land pipeline, which comprised 13500 plots at the same stage last year.

Berkeley has set out plans to deploy about £3.7bn over the coming decade on replacement land investment and commitments to its Build to Rent programme.

There will also be interest in Berkeley’s Build to Rent platform and its cash return programme, both of which are key to the Berkeley 2035 Strategy. The company aims to return £640m in cash to shareholders by September 2030 through dividends and share buybacks, a figure equivalent to just over one sixth of its current stock market value.

The AJ Bell analysts said investors will be watching to see whether Berkeley offers any further detail on these commitments, adding that “the resilience of cash generation remains the key question for a business operating in a still subdued housing market”.

Other companies reporting next week include:

Monday 8 December

Toll Brothers (TOL)

Tuesday 9 December

Chemring (CHG.L)

Oxford Metrics (OMG.L)

Ashtead (AHT.L)

Moonpig (MOON.L)

Begbies Traynor (BEG.L)

Naked Wines (WINE.L)

ThyssenKrupp (TKA.DE)

AutoZone (AZO)

Ferguson (FERG)

Casey’s General Stores (CASY)

Campbell Soup (CPB)

Cracker Barrel (CBRL)

Wednesday 10 December

Redcentric (RCN.L)

ProCook (PROC.L)

TUI (TUI1.DU)

Lennar (LEN)

Chewy (CHWY)

Thursday 11 December

NCC (NCC.L)

RWS (RWS.L)

Costco (COST)

Ciena (CIEN)

Lululemon Athletica (LULU)

Jabil (JBL)

Friday 12 December

UK monthly GDP

You can read Yahoo Finance’s full calendar here.

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