Earnings Outlook for Aspen Group

Aspen Group ASPU will be releasing its next round of earnings this Tuesday, March 16. For all of the relevant information, here is your guide for Tuesday's Q3 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 are expecting Aspen Group's loss per share to be near $0.04 on sales of $16.60 million. Aspen Group's loss in the same period a year ago was $0.07 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $12.54 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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 42.86% increase in the company's earnings. Sales would be up 32.4% from the year-ago period. Aspen Group's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Aspen Group were trading at $8.91 as of March 12. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 66.79%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Aspen Group is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.