Benzinga | Feb 10, 2021 10:36AM EST

2U's Earnings Outlook

2U (NASDAQ:TWOU) releases its next round of earnings this Thursday, February 11. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to 2U's Q4 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

2U EPS loss is expected to be around $0.09, according to sell-side analysts. Sales will likely be near $208.23 million. 2U reported a loss of $0.18 when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $163.18 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 50.0% increase in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be have grown 27.61% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate -0.25 -0.39 -0.45 -0.18EPS Actual -0.24 -0.34 -0.33 -0.18Revenue Estimate 188.56 M 174.56 M 173.76 M 161.38 MRevenue Actual 201.07 M 182.69 M 175.48 M 163.18 M

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares of 2U are up 95.16%.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. 2U is scheduled to hold the call at 16:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.