Benzinga | Mar 10, 2021 10:05AM EST

Earnings Outlook For Information Services

Information Services (NASDAQ:III) releases its next round of earnings this Thursday, March 11. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to Information Services's Q4 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

Analysts predict Information Services will report earnings of $0.06 per share on revenue of $56.21 million. Information Services reported a profit of $0.1 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $65.50 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 report earnings in line when it publishes results Thursday, earnings would be down 40.0%. Sales would be down 14.18% from the same quarter last year. Information Services's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate 0.05 0.04 0.04 0.07EPS Actual 0.10 0.06 0.02 0.10Revenue Estimate 53.29 M 52.94 M 64.14 M 67.13 MRevenue Actual 61.63 M 57.39 M 63.71 M 65.50 M

Stock Performance

Shares of Information Services were trading at $3.84 as of March 09. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 139.01%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Information Services is scheduled to hold the call at 09:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.