Earnings Preview: MoneyGram Int

On Friday, May 07, MoneyGram Int MGI will report its last quarter's earnings. Here is Benzinga's preview of the company's release.

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 MoneyGram Int reporting a quarterly loss of $0.02 per share on sales of $300.35 million. In the same quarter last year, MoneyGram Int posted a loss of $0.05 per share on sales of $290.90 million.

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 60.0% increase in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be up 3.25% from the same quarter last year. MoneyGram Int's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of MoneyGram Int were trading at $6.66 as of May 05. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 299.38%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably content going into this earnings release.

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