Preview: FreightCar America's Earnings

FreightCar America RAIL unveils its next round of earnings this Monday, May 17. Get prepared with Benzinga's ultimate preview for FreightCar America's Q1 earnings.

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 expects an EPS loss of $0.26 and sales around $38.20 million. In the same quarter last year, FreightCar America reported a loss per share of $1.29 on revenue of $5.20 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 Wall Street estimate would represent a 79.84% increase in the company's earnings. Revenue would be up 635.04% 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 FreightCar America were trading at $6.29 as of May 13. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 506.69%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. FreightCar America is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.