Earnings Preview for Packaging Corp of America

Packaging Corp of America PKG announces its next round of earnings this Monday, April 26. Here is Benzinga's look at Packaging Corp of America's Q1 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 Packaging Corp of America reporting earnings of $1.46 per share on revenue of $1.71 billion. Packaging Corp of America earnings in the same period a year ago was $1.5 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $1.71 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 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 match the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, EPS would have fallen 2.67%. Sales would be up 0.06% from the year-ago period. Here is how the Packaging Corp of America's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Packaging Corp of America were trading at $140.78 as of April 22. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 56.88%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably happy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Packaging Corp of America is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.