Preview: ManpowerGroup's Earnings

On Tuesday, April 20, ManpowerGroup MAN will release its latest earnings report. Decipher the announcement with Benzinga's help.

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 analysts see ManpowerGroup reporting earnings of $0.68 per share on sales of $4.68 billion. In the same quarter last year, ManpowerGroup reported earnings per share of $0.82 on sales of $4.62 billion.

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 17.07% decline in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be up 1.32% from the same quarter last year. ManpowerGroup's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of ManpowerGroup were trading at $110.06 as of April 16. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 63.75%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably happy going into this earnings release.

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