Earnings Preview: PDF Solutions

PDF Solutions PDFS announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, February 18. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q4 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

Sell-side analysts expect PDF Solutions's EPS to be near $0.03 on sales of $24.11 million. In the same quarter last year, PDF Solutions reported EPS of $0.03 on revenue of $22.56 million.

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 analyst consensus estimate would represent a 0% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be up 6.86% 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

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 33.17%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

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