A Preview Of Ciena's Earnings

Ciena CIEN announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, December 10. Here is Benzinga's look at Ciena's Q4 earnings report.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Ciena EPS will likely be near $0.63 while revenue will be around $825.36 million, according to analysts. Ciena reported a profit of $0.58 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $967.99 million.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

Analysts who cover this company will publish forward-looking estimates of its revenue and EPS each quarter. Averaging together every EPS and revenue prediction that each analyst makes about a company in a quarter yields the "consensus estimates." A company posting earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate is known as an "earnings surprise" and may move the stock by a considerable margin.

If the company were to post earnings in line with the consensus estimate when it reports Thursday, EPS would be up 8.62%. Sales would be down 14.73% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has compared to analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Ciena were trading at $48.24 as of December 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 13.96%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Ciena is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.