Preview: Inovio Pharmaceuticals's Earnings

Inovio Pharmaceuticals INO announces its next round of earnings this Monday, May 10. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Monday's Q1 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

Inovio Pharmaceuticals's per-share loss will be near $0.18 on sales of $850.00 thousand, according to Wall Street analysts. In the same quarter last year, Inovio Pharmaceuticals reported a loss per share of $0.26 on revenue of $1.33 million.

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.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, earnings would be up 30.77%. Revenue would be down 35.95% from the year-ago period. Inovio Pharmaceuticals's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Inovio Pharmaceuticals were trading at $6.51 as of May 06. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 43.49%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably down going into this earnings release.

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