Preview: CatchMark Timber Trust's Earnings

CatchMark Timber Trust CTT announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, October 29. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q3 earnings announcement.

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

Analysts are expecting CatchMark Timber Trust to report a loss of $0.08 per share. Revenue will likely be around $23.61 million, according to the consensus estimate. CatchMark Timber Trust's loss in the same period a year ago was $0.42 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $26.38 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 analyst consensus estimate would represent a 80.95% increase in the company's earnings. Sales would have fallen 10.5% 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 CatchMark Timber Trust were trading at $8.05 as of October 27. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 30.25%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are likely a little upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. CatchMark Timber Trust is scheduled to hold the call at 12:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.