Apollo Investment Earnings Preview

Apollo Investment AINV announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, May 20. Here is Benzinga's look at Apollo Investment's Q4 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 EPS of $0.41 and sales around $53.05 million. In the same quarter last year, Apollo Investment announced EPS of $0.59 on revenue of $71.60 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.

If the company were to report earnings in line when it publishes results Thursday, earnings would be down 30.51%. Revenue would have fallen 25.91% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has compared to analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Apollo Investment were trading at $14.51 as of May 18. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 43.98%. 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. Apollo Investment is scheduled to hold the call at 17:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.