Earnings Preview for Essent Gr

Essent Gr ESNT announces its next round of earnings this Friday, February 19. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Friday's Q4 earnings announcement.

Net Income, Earnings, 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 analysts see Essent Gr reporting earnings of $1.21 per share on revenue of $250.44 million. In the same quarter last year, Essent Gr posted EPS of $1.49 on sales of $228.76 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 Friday, EPS would be down 18.79%. Revenue would be up 9.48% from the year-ago period. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the past 52-week period, shares of Essent Gr have declined 8.17%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably a little upset going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Essent Gr is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.