The earnings season is fast approaching. Last week saw companies that operate on a calendar year wrap up their second quarters. This left accounting and finance teams free to finish the quarter's books and prepare earnings reports. Investors have been treated to some very interesting earnings reports in 2020 and 2021. They provide timely insights into the operations of businesses in a time of significant uncertainty and unique circumstances.The U.S. economy has begun to look more normal, but Q2 2021 still had its unique circumstances. These included high unemployment rates, logistical and global supply challenges, unusual year-ago comparisons, and unusually high logistics costs. Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE :CMG) is one company worth keeping an eye on as we begin to analyze the quarter and attempt to understand how organizations did. These stocks have surged sharply in the last month. These two stocks are hot and can they deliver the results investors expect?These are the top items investors should be paying attention to when these companies report earnings.Chipotle: Are digital orders still on the rise?Chipotle saw a huge increase in sales during Q1. This was due to both good business execution as well as easy comparisons. The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in the United States, had a negative impact on Q1 2020. The first quarter 2021 revenue grew 23.4% year-over-year, thanks to 35 net new stores and 17.2% more comparable restaurant sales.The quarter's most impressive statistic was the 134% increase in digital sales Chipotley offered. The total digital sales accounted for 50% of the total sales in this period. Investors should examine whether Chipotle managed to maintain its strong digital momentum in Q2. It is reasonable to expect a slowdown in digital sales growth in Q2, given that the company was facing a period of 2020 where COVID-19 lockdowns impacted more than half its sales. The second quarter 2020 saw digital sales grow 216% year-over-year, which represented 61% of total sales.However, Chipotle's digital momentum suggests that the company is still in a position to record digital transactions during Q2.After the market closes on July 20, Chipotle will release its second quarter results.Netflix: Can it defeat tough competitors?Netflix reports its earnings the same day that Chipotle. This is a stark contrast to previous years. As people look for entertainment at home, the streaming-TV service's subscriptions soared in the second quarter 2020. The total number of subscribers for Netflix in the first half 2020 was nearly 26 million. This includes more than 10,000,000 new subscribers. Netflix had only 28 million subscribers in the entirety of 2019, compared to Netflix's total of 26 million.Netflix management believes that a lot of streaming demand was moved forward to 2020. This explains why Netflix only added 4 million subscribers in its first quarter 2021. The company has only one million subscribers to guide for in the second quarter 2021.Investors should also consider the guidance of management for the third quarter 2021 as investors may be hoping for normalized growth.Investors will find the earnings reports of these companies on their investor relations websites after the market closes on Tuesday, July 20, 2018.
