Preview: Signet Jewelers's Earnings

Signet Jewelers SIG announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, December 03. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q3 earnings announcement.

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

Wall Street analysts see Signet Jewelers reporting a loss of $0.71 per share on revenue of $1.13 billion. Signet Jewelers reported a loss of $0.76 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $1.19 billion.

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 when it reports Thursday, EPS would be up 6.58%. Sales would be down 4.88% from the same quarter last year. Signet Jewelers's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 61.96%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

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