A Preview Of Comtech Telecomms's Earnings

Comtech Telecomms CMTL announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, March 11. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q2 earnings announcement.

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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.04 and sales around $137.88 million. In the same quarter last year, Comtech Telecomms reported earnings per share of $0.32 on sales of $161.65 million.

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

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 87.5% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be down 14.71% from the year-ago period. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 67.17%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Comtech Telecomms is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.