Benzinga | Jan 12, 2021 10:05AM EST

Preview: Shaw Communications's Earnings

Shaw Communications (NYSE:SJR) releases its next round of earnings this Wednesday, January 13. Get the latest predictions in Benzinga's essential guide to the company's Q1 earnings report.

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 $0.22 and sales around $1.01 billion. Shaw Communications earnings in the same period a year ago was $0.24 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $1.06 billion.

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.

If the company were to report earnings in line when it publishes results Wednesday, quarterly profit would be down 8.33%. Revenue would be down 5.16% on a year-over-year basis. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q4 2020 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate 0.22 0.22 0.22 0.22EPS Actual 0.26 0.27 0.23 0.24Revenue Estimate 1.01 B 1.01 B 1.01 B 1.01 BRevenue Actual 984.79 M 970.88 M 1.04 B 1.06 B

Stock Performance

Shares of Shaw Communications were trading at $17.85 as of January 11. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 11.38%. 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. Shaw Communications is scheduled to hold the call at 09:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.