Forestar Gr's Earnings Outlook

On Thursday, January 21, Forestar Gr FOR will report its last quarter's earnings. Here is Benzinga's preview of the company's release.

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

Forestar Gr earnings will be near $0.37 per share on sales of $261.51 million, according to analysts. In the same quarter last year, Forestar Gr announced EPS of $0.35 on revenue of $247.20 million.

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 analyst consensus estimate would represent a 5.71% increase in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be up 5.79% from the year-ago period. Forestar Gr's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Forestar Gr were trading at $21.97 as of January 18. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 1.07%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Forestar Gr is scheduled to hold the call at 17:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.