Benzinga | Feb 10, 2021 10:40AM EST

A Preview Of Huntington Ingalls Indus's Earnings

Huntington Ingalls Indus (NYSE:HII) announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, February 11. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q4 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 Huntington Ingalls Indus's EPS to be near $4.56 on sales of $2.41 billion. In the same quarter last year, Huntington Ingalls Indus reported earnings per share of $4.36 on revenue of $2.41 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 Thursday, earnings would be up 4.59%. Sales would be down 0.08% on a year-over-year basis. Huntington Ingalls Indus's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate 4.13 4.17 4.52 4.20EPS Actual 5.45 1.30 4.23 4.36Revenue Estimate 2.20 B 2.14 B 2.11 B 2.32 BRevenue Actual 2.31 B 2.03 B 2.26 B 2.41 B

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 32.71%. 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. Huntington Ingalls Indus is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.