Benzinga | Feb 10, 2021 10:55AM EST

Earnings Preview: Expedia Group

Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE) 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

Wall Street analysts see Expedia Group reporting a loss of $1.97 per share on revenue of $1.12 billion. In the same quarter last year, Expedia Group reported EPS of $1.24 on revenue of $2.75 billion.

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 258.87% decline in the company's EPS figure. Sales would be down 59.23% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has compared to analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate -0.79 -3.41 -1.04 1.19EPS Actual -0.24 -4.09 -1.83 1.24Revenue Estimate 1.38 B 635.75 M 2.29 B 2.76 BRevenue Actual 1.50 B 566.00 M 2.21 B 2.75 B

Stock Performance

Shares of Expedia Group were trading at $144.48 as of February 09. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 33.2%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably happy going into this earnings release.

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