Earnings Preview: BEST

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Analysts covering BEST have modeled for quarterly EPS loss of $0.14 on revenue of $1.01 billion. In the same quarter last year, BEST reported a loss per share of $0.26 on sales of $771.87 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 46.15% increase in the company's earnings. Revenue would be have grown 30.85% from the same quarter last year. BEST's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of BEST have declined 71.77%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably a little upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. BEST is scheduled to hold the call at 21:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.