Copa Holdings's Earnings: A Preview

On Wednesday, November 18, Copa Holdings CPA will release its latest earnings report. Here is Benzinga's outlook for the company.

Net Income, Earnings, And Earnings Per Share

Earnings and EPS are useful metrics of profitability. Total earnings also known as net income is equal to total revenue minus total expenses. Dividing net income by the total number of shares outstanding yields EPS.

Earnings And Revenue

Copa Holdings EPS loss is expected to be around $2.74, according to sell-side analysts. Sales will likely be near $39.02 million. Copa Holdings reported a profit of $2.45 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $708.21 million.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

Wall Street analysts who study this company will publish analyst estimates of revenue and EPS. The averages of all analyst EPS and revenue estimates are called the "consensus estimates"; these consensus estimates can have a significant effect on a company's performance during an earnings release. When a company posts earnings or revenue above or below a consensus estimate, it has posted an "earnings surprise", which can really move a stock depending on the difference between actual and estimated values.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 211.84% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be down 94.49% from the year-ago period. Copa Holdings's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of Copa Holdings have declined 33.77%.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Copa Holdings is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.