Earnings Outlook for Asbury Automotive Group

Asbury Automotive Group ABG announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, February 02. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Tuesday'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

Wall Street expects EPS of $4.14 and sales around $2.17 billion. In the same quarter last year, Asbury Automotive Group posted EPS of $2.53 on sales of $1.89 billion.

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.

If the company were to report earnings in line when it publishes results Tuesday, quarterly profit would be up 63.64%. Revenue would be up 14.57% from the same quarter last year. Asbury Automotive Group's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Asbury Automotive Group were trading at $142.98 as of January 29. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 52.22%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Asbury Automotive Group is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.