A Preview Of StoneCastle Financial's Earnings

On Monday, March 01, StoneCastle Financial BANX will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's report can help you figure out the ins and outs of the earnings release.

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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.37 and sales around $3.85 million. In the same quarter last year, StoneCastle Financial reported earnings per share of $0.41 on revenue of $4.12 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.

If the company were to report earnings in line when it publishes results Monday, earnings would be down 9.76%. Sales would be down 6.44% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of StoneCastle Financial have declined 2.77%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably a little upset going into this earnings release.

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