Earnings Outlook For Alaska Air Group

Alaska Air Group ALK announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, April 22. Here is Benzinga's look at Alaska Air Group's Q1 earnings report.

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 Alaska Air Group reporting a quarterly loss of $3.63 per share on sales of $785.58 million. In the same quarter last year, Alaska Air Group reported EPS of $0.82 on revenue of $1.64 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 Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 342.68% decrease for the company. Revenue would be down 51.98% 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 Alaska Air Group were trading at $66.78 as of April 20. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 139.65%. 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. Alaska Air Group is scheduled to hold the call at 11:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.