Earnings Preview for Apollo Investment

On Thursday, February 04, Apollo Investment AINV will release its latest earnings report. Decipher the announcement with Benzinga's help.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Apollo Investment earnings will be near $0.39 per share on sales of $54.42 million, according to analysts. Apollo Investment reported a per-share profit of $0.54 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $68.48 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.

The Wall Street estimate would represent a 27.78% decline in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 20.53% from the year-ago period. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Shares of Apollo Investment were trading at $12.7 as of February 02. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 25.32%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably unhappy going into this earnings release.

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