Earnings Preview: Marathon Oil

On Monday, February 22, Marathon Oil MRO will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's report can help you figure out the ins and outs of the earnings release.

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

Analysts covering Marathon Oil have modeled for quarterly EPS loss of $0.2 on revenue of $838.05 million. In the same quarter last year, Marathon Oil reported EPS of $0.07 on revenue of $1.22 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 Monday, earnings would be down 385.71%. Revenue would be down 31.02% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Marathon Oil were trading at $9.13 as of February 18. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 1.64%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably unhappy going into this earnings release.

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