Earnings Preview for Covanta Holding

On Thursday, April 29, Covanta Holding CVA will release its latest earnings report. Check out Benzinga's preview to understand the implications.

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

Covanta Holding's per-share loss will be near $0.13 on sales of $481.73 million, according to Wall Street analysts. Covanta Holding's loss in the same period a year ago was $0.1 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $468.00 million.

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, earnings would be down 30.0%. Sales would be up 2.93% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Covanta Holding were trading at $13.98 as of April 27. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 78.02%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Covanta Holding is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.