A Preview Of Intuitive Surgical's Earnings

Intuitive Surgical ISRG announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, January 21. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q4 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

Based on management's projections, Intuitive Surgical analysts model for earnings of $3.12 per share on sales of $1.24 billion. In the same quarter last year, Intuitive Surgical reported earnings per share of $3.48 on sales of $1.28 billion.

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 Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 10.34% decrease for the company. Sales would have fallen 2.97% from the same quarter last year. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares of Intuitive Surgical are up 28.01%.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Intuitive Surgical is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.