Earnings Preview for Celestica

Celestica CLS announces its next round of earnings this Wednesday, January 27. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Wednesday'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

Analysts expect Celestica earnings of $0.25 per share. Revenue will likely be around $1.41 billion, according to the consensus estimate. In the same quarter last year, Celestica reported earnings per share of $0.18 on sales of $1.49 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 Wednesday, earnings would be up 38.89%. Sales would be down 5.5% from the year-ago period. Celestica's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Celestica were trading at $8.63 as of January 25. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 1.47%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably down going into this earnings release.

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