Graphic Packaging Holding Earnings Preview

Graphic Packaging Holding GPK announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, February 02. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Tuesday's Q4 earnings announcement.

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 Graphic Packaging Holding reporting earnings of $0.27 per share on sales of $1.59 billion. Graphic Packaging Holding reported a per-share profit of $0.23 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $1.52 billion.

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 Tuesday, earnings would be up 17.39%. Sales would be up 4.61% on a year-over-year basis. Here is how the company's reported EPS has compared to analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Graphic Packaging Holding were trading at $15.65 as of January 29. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 1.57%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are likely unhappy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Graphic Packaging Holding is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.