A Preview Of Kaiser Aluminum's Earnings

Kaiser Aluminum KALU releases its next round of earnings this Wednesday, July 21. Get the latest predictions in Benzinga's essential guide to the company's Q2 earnings report.

Net Income, Earnings, And Earnings Per Share

Earnings and especially earnings per share (EPS) are useful measures of a company's profitability. Total earnings, which is also referred to as net income, equals total revenue minus total expenses. EPS equals to net income divided by the number of shares outstanding.

Earnings And Revenue

Wall Street analysts see Kaiser Aluminum reporting earnings of $1.44 per share on revenue of $519.18 million. Kaiser Aluminum reported a profit of $0.36 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $275.70 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 report earnings in line when it publishes results Wednesday, earnings would be up 300.0%. Sales would be up 88.31% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Kaiser Aluminum were trading at $109.31 as of July 19. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 50.5%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Kaiser Aluminum is scheduled to hold the call at 17:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.