Earnings Preview: KeyCorp

On Wednesday, October 21, KeyCorp KEY will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's outlook for KeyCorp is included in the following report.

The Definitions Of Net Income, Earnings And Earnings Per Share (EPS)

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

Based on KeyCorp management projections, analysts predict EPS of $0.37 on revenue of $1.69 billion. KeyCorp EPS in the same period a year ago totaled $0.48. Revenue was $1.63 billion.

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 given company yields the "consensus estimates." If the company posts earnings or revenue above or below the consensus estimate, the stock may move by a considerable margin.

The Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 22.92% decrease for the company. Sales would be up 3.68% on a year-over-year basis. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 27.7%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders won't be happy going into this earnings release.

The general EPS consensus estimate since that time has moved up 362.5% while revenue estimates have moved up 3.68%.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. KeyCorp is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here: https://78449.choruscall.com/dataconf/productusers/key/mediaframe/40741/indexr.html