Rockwell Medical's Earnings: A Preview

On Wednesday, March 31, Rockwell Medical RMTI 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

Sell-side analysts are expecting Rockwell Medical's loss per share to be near $0.08 on sales of $15.66 million. Rockwell Medical's loss in the same period a year ago was $0.11 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $15.49 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 27.27% increase in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be up 1.1% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Rockwell Medical were trading at $1.115 as of March 29. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 38.54%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably upset going into this earnings release.

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