Benzinga | Feb 3, 2021 10:20AM EST

Earnings Preview for Post Holdings

Post Holdings (NYSE:POST) releases its next round of earnings this Thursday, February 04. 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 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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.71 and sales around $1.42 billion. Post Holdings earnings in the same period a year ago was $0.76 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $1.46 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.

The Wall Street estimate would represent a 6.58% decline in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 2.54% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q4 2020 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate 0.77 0.71 0.90 1.15EPS Actual 0.58 0.75 0.65 0.76Revenue Estimate 1.44 B 1.38 B 1.42 B 1.47 BRevenue Actual 1.41 B 1.34 B 1.49 B 1.46 B

Stock Performance

Shares of Post Holdings were trading at $94.83 as of February 02. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 11.37%. 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. Post Holdings is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.