Fasten your seatbelt it’s going to be a busy week. We are right in the heart of earnings season. While all of our positions are dependent on good results, many of our option positions are timed on news coming out of this first quarter cycle.

I will be covering all the news and be filling you in on updates. Most of the updates will be found here, on the weekly update. However, when a stock moves dramatically, as it did with Mueller Water last week (see details below), and if it inspires a buy on the dip or a sell recommendation, I will issue an alert, delivered to you via email and/or text.

Here’s how the week is shaping up:

Monday (after the close): Integrated Device Technology (NSDQ:IDTI) and Chemours Company (NYSE:CC)

Tuesday: Spectrum Brands (NYSE:SPB), Edgewell Personal Care (NYSE:EPC) and Big Five Sporting (NSDQ:BGFV) before the open.  

Wednesday: Air Transport Services (NSDQ:ATSG) and Criteo (NSDQ:CRTO) both before the open.

Thursday: ANI Pharma (NSDQ:ANIP) and Church and Dwight (NYSE:CHD) before the open and Carbonite (NSDQ:CARB) and Imping (NSDQ:PI) after the close.

Option put positions in Spectrum Brands, Edgewell Personal Care and Church and Dwight were placed as a bet that sales this quarter will disappoint. Conference call information for Spectrum and Church and Dwight, including what information to listen for can be found here.

Edgewell will host a conference call on May 2 at 10 AM (EST). A webcast of the call can be accessed via this link. Please be sure to leave a few moments to register your name for the call. You do not have to be an institutional investor to listen to this call.

What to Listen For: Edgewell derives 63% of its revenue from its wet shave products, including Schick razors. The razor category is under massive assault from low priced home delivery razor firms like Dollar Shave. What is Edgewell’s plan to get some of that business back? Look for terms like promotions and “planogram” adjustments, a fancy term for losing shelf space.

In other news around the portfolio:

Ambarella (NSDQ:AMBA) jumped a bit last week when large customer GoPro announced bullish sales results. GoPro’s first quarter revenue grew 19% and second quarter growth is expected to accelerate to 22%. This growth is a huge jump from the 7% decline GoPro suffered in the prior six months.

According to industry source NPD, GoPro’s drone, Karma with HERO5 camera, was the #2 best-selling drone priced over $1,000 in the U.S. in March. Also, global consumer research firm GfK noted that unit and dollar sell-through of Karma drones in Japan was up 140 percent year over year.

Also, Ambarella won a coveted spot in Chinese camera company Yi Technology’s, 360-degree virtual reality camera. The camera, the Yi 360 VR, was announced at the NAB conference (National Association of Broadcasters) in Las Vegas last week.

Edgewell (NYSE:EPC) was touted by Barron’s as a potential take-out. I find its argument flawed in several ways. First, the analyst quoted in the article thinks it could be acquired for a price equal to 17 times its EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization- a fancy term for what usually equals the cash flow of a company).

This multiple is well above the most recent price paid and more than double the 7.7 times median paid. Last week Post Holdings (NYSE:POST) purchased Weetabix for 12 times EBITDA, a price investors complained was too high.

Barron’s also tried to defend the health of Edgewell’s razor business. This is hardly true. For the December quarter, Edgewell reported a 2.1% decline in its organic shaving revenue. On top of this, Proctor and Gamble (NYSE:PG) recently announced that its razor sales were the weakest of the year.

P&G’s CFO, Jon Moeller, said consumers are cutting back purchases, aggressively seeking deals and drawing down supplies at home. At the same time, he said, a growing affinity for beards has played a big part in driving down razor sales, which contributed to a 6% organic sales decline for P&G’s grooming unit.

It’s safe to say I’m still quite bearish on Edgewell and think subscribers could add to the May put positions at this level.

Semiconductor equipment maker Ichor Holdings (NSDQ: ICHR) priced a 5.137 million share secondary offering at $19.50  Of the deal shares, 4.5 million were sold by insiders and the balance by the company. As a reminder, shares sold by the company increase the share count but add the proceeds to its cash balance. Insider sales do not change the share count nor do they generate any proceeds for the company.

At the same time, the company pre-announced a very strong first quarter and gave bullish guidance for the second.

Ichor expects revenue of approximately $148.7 million, more than double last year’s level and expects revenue growth of 65% in the second quarter. Profits will be equally brilliant with the company expecting $.57 of earnings in the first quarter versus $.17 last year.

Smart Sand (NSDQ:SND) took a hit last week. I suspect it was due to cautious commentary from Carbo Ceramics (NYSE:CRR). Although Carbo does compete a bit with Smart Sand, its propellants are a much more expensive type used in very deep drilling. The fracking sand sold by Smart Sand is used at a different depth and does not compete directly with Carbo’s products. Also, I think investors were disappointed by Carbo’s continued cash burn. 

Smart Sand, which is profitable and generating cash, will report results on May 11. I expect the company to deliver good news and recommend buying on the dip.

For those that missed the alert, Mueller Water (NYSE: MWA) reported a tough quarter last week. Sales for more traditional hydrants and valves were up just slightly due to customer hesitation over infrastructure bills. Most of Mueller’s products are purchased by municipalities which rely on federal and state funding for their budgets.

Despite the hiccup, the company’s technology products, which detect leaks and measure the health of water infrastructure, appear to be on track. San Jose just announced the largest deployment to date of Mueller’s Echologic leak detection product. Just today the Wall Street Journal reported that the city of Pittsburgh is looking for $1.5 billion in funding to upgrade its water infrastructure.
Like many infrastructure companies, revenue can be lumpy and unpredictable. I like the conservative management at Mueller and its unique product positioning in this space.