Benzinga | Feb 3, 2021 10:06AM EST

Earnings Outlook for National Fuel Gas

National Fuel Gas (NYSE:NFG) unveils its next round of earnings this Thursday, February 04. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for the earnings announcement.

Net Income, Earnings, And Earnings Per Share

Earnings and especially earnings per share (EPS) are useful measures of a company's profitability. Total earnings, which is also referred to as net income, equals total revenue minus total expenses. EPS equals to net income divided by the number of shares outstanding.

Earnings And Revenue

Sell-side analysts expect National Fuel Gas's EPS to be near $0.98 on sales of $532.68 million. In the same quarter last year, National Fuel Gas reported earnings per share of $1.01 on revenue of $444.19 million.

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 Thursday, earnings would be down 2.97%. Sales would be up 19.92% from the same quarter last year. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q4 2020 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate 0.33 0.47 0.97 0.97EPS Actual 0.40 0.57 0.97 1.01Revenue Estimate 351.36 M 380.98 M 600.75 M 529.93 MRevenue Actual 287.99 M 323.02 M 491.10 M 444.19 M

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 5.35%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders won't be happy going into this earnings release.

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