Earnings Preview: Bel Fuse

Bel Fuse BELFA releases its next round of earnings this Friday, October 30. Get the latest predictions in Benzinga's essential guide to the company's Q3 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

Bel Fuse EPS is expected to be around $0.07, according to sell-side analysts. Sales will likely be near $130.00 million. Bel Fuse reported a profit of $0.19 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $124.48 million.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 63.16% decrease in the company's earnings. Revenue would be up 4.44% from the same quarter last year. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Bel Fuse were trading at $10.95 as of October 28. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 9.6%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are likely unhappy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Bel Fuse is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.