Earnings Preview: Apache

On Wednesday, November 04, Apache APA will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's outlook for Apache is included in the following 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

Analysts covering Apache have modeled for quarterly EPS loss of $0.34 on revenue of $992.30 million. Apache reported a per-share loss of $0.29 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $1.48 billion.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

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 consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 17.24% decrease for the company. Sales would be down 32.82% on a year-over-year basis. Apache's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 61.26%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders won't be happy going into this earnings release.

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