Earnings Preview for Hill-Rom Holdings

Hill-Rom Holdings HRC announces its next round of earnings this Friday, November 06. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Friday's Q4 earnings announcement.

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

Wall Street analysts see Hill-Rom Holdings reporting earnings of $1.07 per share on revenue of $696.36 million. Hill-Rom Holdings earnings in the same period a year ago was $1.69 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $782.80 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.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate, earnings would be down 36.69%. Revenue would be down 11.04% 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 Hill-Rom Holdings were trading at $87.62 as of November 04. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 14.13%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably a little upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Hill-Rom Holdings is scheduled to hold the call at 08:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.