A Preview Of Ambac Financial Group's Earnings

On Monday, November 09, Ambac Financial Group AMBC will report its last quarter's earnings. Here is Benzinga's preview of the company's release.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Ambac Financial Group's per-share loss will be near $0.64 on sales of $52.10 million, according to Wall Street analysts. Ambac Financial Group reported a profit of $1.63 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $216.16 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 139.26% decline in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be down 75.9% from the year-ago period. Here is how the Ambac Financial Group's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Ambac Financial Group were trading at $12.83 as of November 05. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 35.39%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably unhappy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Ambac Financial Group is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.