Cerner Earnings Preview

Cerner CERN unveils its next round of earnings this Wednesday, February 10. Get prepared with Benzinga's ultimate preview for Cerner's Q4 earnings.

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

Wall Street analysts see Cerner reporting earnings of $0.78 per share on sales of $1.39 billion. In the same quarter last year, Cerner reported EPS of $0.75 on revenue of $1.44 billion.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

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 match the consensus estimate when it reports Wednesday, EPS would be up 4.0%. Sales would be down 3.61% on a year-over-year basis. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Cerner were trading at $78.5 as of February 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 2.91%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be satisfied going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Cerner is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.