Preview: Acuity Brands's Earnings

Acuity Brands AYI announces its next round of earnings this Wednesday, March 31. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Wednesday's Q2 earnings announcement.

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

Wall Street analysts see Acuity Brands reporting earnings of $1.69 per share on sales of $767.38 million. In the same quarter last year, Acuity Brands reported earnings per share of $1.84 on revenue of $824.20 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 8.15% decrease in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 6.89% on a year-over-year basis. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Shares of Acuity Brands were trading at $144.32 as of March 29. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 81.43%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be satisfied going into this earnings release.

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