Earnings Outlook For Verizon Communications

On Wednesday, October 21, Verizon Communications VZ will release its latest earnings report. Decipher the announcement with Benzinga's help.

The Definitions Of 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

Based on Verizon Communications management projections, analysts predict EPS of $1.22 on revenue of $31.59 billion. Verizon Communications reported a per-share profit of $1.25 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $32.89 billion.

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 given company yields the "consensus estimates." If the company posts earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate, the stock may move by a considerable margin.

The Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 2.4% decrease for the company. Sales would be down 3.96% from the year-ago period. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Verizon Communications were trading at $57.31 as of October 19. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 5.58%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Verizon Communications is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here: https://www.verizon.com/about/investors/third-quarter-2020-earnings