Hexcel's Earnings Outlook

Hexcel HXL announces its next round of earnings this Monday, January 25. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Monday's Q4 earnings announcement.

Net Income, Earnings, 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

Hexcel's per-share loss will be near $0.19 on sales of $297.18 million, according to Wall Street analysts. Hexcel reported a per-share profit of $0.86 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $564.30 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 report earnings in line when it publishes results Monday, earnings would be down 122.09%. Revenue would be down 47.34% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of Hexcel have declined 34.66%. 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. Hexcel is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.