Earnings Preview: Fluidigm

On Wednesday, February 10, Fluidigm FLDM will report its last quarter's earnings. Here is Benzinga's preview of the company's release.

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

Analysts are expecting Fluidigm to report a loss of $0.07 per share. Revenue will likely be around $50.72 million, according to the consensus estimate. In the same quarter last year, Fluidigm posted EPS of $0.03 on sales of $32.44 million.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

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 Wednesday, EPS would be down 133.33%. Sales would be up 56.35% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Fluidigm were trading at $6.975 as of February 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 98.56%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Fluidigm is scheduled to hold the call at 17:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.