Benzinga | Dec 7, 2020 10:05AM EST

Earnings Preview for Powell Industries

Powell Industries (NASDAQ:POWL) announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, December 08. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Tuesday's Q4 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

Analysts covering Powell Industries modeled for quarterly EPS of $0.26 on revenue of $120.17 million. In the same quarter last year, Powell Industries reported earnings per share of $0.56 on revenue of $148.50 million.

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 53.57% decrease in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 19.08% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the Powell Industries's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2019EPS Estimate 0.32 0.38 0.32 0.38EPS Actual 0.30 0.64 0.24 0.56Revenue Estimate 128.81 M 137.36 M 136.71 M 139.04 MRevenue Actual 118.06 M 151.57 M 134.15 M 148.50 M

Stock Performance

Shares of Powell Industries were trading at $27.97 as of December 04. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 44.3%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably unhappy going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Powell Industries is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.