O'Reilly Automotive Earnings Preview

O'Reilly Automotive ORLY announces its next round of earnings this Wednesday, October 28. Here is Benzinga's look at O'Reilly Automotive's Q3 earnings report.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Sell-side analysts expect O'Reilly Automotive's EPS to be near $6.19 on sales of $2.98 billion. O'Reilly Automotive reported a per-share profit of $5.08 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $2.67 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 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.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate, earnings would be up 21.85%. Sales would be up 11.74% from the same quarter last year. O'Reilly Automotive's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of O'Reilly Automotive were trading at $455.96 as of October 26. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 4.09%. 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. O'Reilly Automotive is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.