Nuance Communications Earnings Preview

Nuance Communications NUAN announces its next round of earnings this Monday, February 08. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Monday's Q1 earnings announcement.

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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.18 and sales around $337.91 million. In the same quarter last year, Nuance Communications posted EPS of $0.27 on sales of $418.23 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.

If the company were to post earnings in line with the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, EPS would be down 33.33%. Revenue would be down 19.21% on a year-over-year basis. Here is how the Nuance Communications's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Nuance Communications were trading at $49.55 as of February 04. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 120.13%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be satisfied going into this earnings release.

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