Preview: Marten Transport's Earnings

Marten Transport MRTN announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, April 15. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q1 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 Marten Transport reporting earnings of $0.2 per share on revenue of $223.77 million. Marten Transport EPS in the same period a year ago totaled $0.25. Sales were $218.65 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 match the consensus estimate, earnings would be down 20.0%. Sales would be have grown 2.34% from the same quarter last year. Marten Transport's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Marten Transport were trading at $17.7 as of April 13. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 25.46%. 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. Marten Transport is scheduled to hold the call at 08:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.