Preview: Pilgrims Pride's Earnings

On Wednesday, February 10, Pilgrims Pride PPC will release its latest earnings report. Check out Benzinga's preview to understand the implications.

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 expects EPS of $0.33 and sales around $3.29 billion. Pilgrims Pride reported a profit of $0.14 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $3.06 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.

The Wall Street estimate would represent a 135.71% increase in the company's earnings. Sales would be up 7.38% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Pilgrims Pride were trading at $22.74 as of February 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 13.89%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Pilgrims Pride is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.