Benzinga | Feb 5, 2021 10:19AM EST

General Finance Earnings Preview

General Finance (NASDAQ:GFN) will be releasing its next round of earnings this Monday, February 08. For all of the relevant information, here is your guide for Monday's Q2 earnings announcement.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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 predict General Finance will report earnings of $0.12 per share on revenue of $83.17 million. General Finance EPS in the same period a year ago totaled $0.3. Sales were $92.11 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.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, earnings would be down 60.0%. Sales would be down 9.7% from the year-ago period. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Quarter Q1 2020 Q4 2020 Q3 2020 Q2 2020EPS Estimate 0.03 0.03 0.16 0.21EPS Actual 0.10 0.44 -0.32 0.30Revenue Estimate 77.42 M 78.75 M 88.02 M 96.25 MRevenue Actual 82.36 M 84.50 M 89.97 M 92.11 M

Stock Performance

Shares of General Finance were trading at $7.89 as of February 04. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 16.42%. 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. General Finance is scheduled to hold the call at 11:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.