Earnings Preview: Starbucks

Starbucks SBUX announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, April 27. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Tuesday's Q2 earnings announcement.

Net Income, Earnings, 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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.53 and sales around $6.81 billion. In the same quarter last year, Starbucks announced EPS of $0.32 on revenue of $6.00 billion.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

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 Tuesday, EPS would be up 65.62%. Sales would be up 13.58% from the same quarter last year. Starbucks's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 47.13%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

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