Earnings Preview: Intercept Pharmaceuticals

Intercept Pharmaceuticals ICPT unveils its next round of earnings this Thursday, May 06. 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

Sell-side analysts are expecting Intercept Pharmaceuticals's loss per share to be near $1.44 on sales of $81.20 million. In the same quarter last year, Intercept Pharmaceuticals reported a loss per share of $2.86 on revenue of $72.65 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.

The Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 49.65% increase for the company. Revenue would be up 11.77% on a year-over-year basis. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of Intercept Pharmaceuticals have declined 77.5%.

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