On Thursday, May 27, HP (NYSE:HPQ) will release its latest earnings report. Decipher the announcement with Benzinga's help.

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

HP earnings will be near $0.89 per share on sales of $15.00 billion, according to analysts. HP reported a profit of $0.51 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $12.47 billion.

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 74.51% increase in the company's EPS figure. Sales would be up 20.3% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Shares of HP were trading at $31.86 as of May 25. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 112.66%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably happy going into this earnings release.

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