Preview: Oceaneering International's Earnings

Oceaneering International OII unveils its next round of earnings this Wednesday, April 28. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for the earnings announcement.

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 an EPS loss of $0.06 and sales around $430.93 million. Oceaneering International reported a per-share profit of $0.04 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $536.67 million.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

Analysts who cover this company will publish forward-looking estimates of its revenue and EPS each quarter. Averaging together every EPS and revenue prediction that each analyst makes about a company in a quarter yields the "consensus estimates." A company posting earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate is known as an "earnings surprise" and may move the stock by a considerable margin.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate, earnings would be down 250.0%. Sales would be down 19.7% from the year-ago period. Here is how the Oceaneering International's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Oceaneering International were trading at $10.78 as of April 26. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 104.62%. 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. Oceaneering International is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.