Earnings Outlook For Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway CNI unveils its next round of earnings this Monday, April 26. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for the 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 expects EPS of $0.99 and sales around $2.86 billion. In the same quarter last year, Canadian National Railway reported earnings per share of $0.91 on sales of $2.65 billion.

Why Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises Are Important

Wall Street analysts who study this company will publish analyst estimates of revenue and EPS. The averages of all analyst EPS and revenue estimates are called the "consensus estimates"; these consensus estimates can have a significant effect on a company's performance during an earnings release. When a company posts earnings or revenue above or below a consensus estimate, it has posted an "earnings surprise", which can really move a stock depending on the difference between actual and estimated values.

If the company were to post earnings in line with the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, EPS would be up 8.79%. Revenue would be have grown 8.13% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of Canadian National Railway were trading at $109.85 as of April 22. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 35.9%. 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. Canadian National Railway is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.