Earnings Outlook for Castlight Health

Castlight Health CSLT releases its next round of earnings this Thursday, April 29. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to Castlight Health's Q1 earnings report.

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 an EPS loss of $0.01 and sales around $34.73 million. In the same quarter last year, Castlight Health reported EPS of $0.01 on revenue of $39.05 million.

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

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent no change in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 11.05% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has compared to analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 97.82%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can relax going into this earnings release. Long-term shareholders are already enjoying 12-month gains prior to the announcement.

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