Heritage Insurance Hldgs's Earnings: A Preview

Heritage Insurance Hldgs HRTG releases its next round of earnings this Wednesday, March 03. Get the latest predictions in Benzinga's essential guide to the company's Q4 earnings report.

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

Analysts are expecting Heritage Insurance Hldgs to report a loss of $0.39 per share. Revenue will likely be around $146.56 million, according to the consensus estimate. In the same quarter last year, Heritage Insurance Hldgs posted EPS of $0.44 on sales of $131.08 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.

See also: Commercial Umbrella Insurance

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 188.64% decrease in the company's earnings. Revenue would be up 11.81% from the same quarter last year. Heritage Insurance Hldgs's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Heritage Insurance Hldgs were trading at $10.3 as of March 01. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 16.42%. 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. Heritage Insurance Hldgs is scheduled to hold the call at 09:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.