Benzinga | Apr 21, 2021 10:43AM EDT

Earnings Outlook For IQVIA Holdings

IQVIA Holdings (NYSE:IQV) announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, April 22. Here is Benzinga's look at IQVIA Holdings's Q1 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

Sell-side analysts expect IQVIA Holdings's EPS to be near $1.85 on sales of $3.18 billion. IQVIA Holdings EPS in the same period a year ago totaled $1.5. Sales were $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 Wall Street consensus estimate for earnings would represent a 23.33% increase for the company. Sales would be up 15.47% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q4 2021 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate 2 1.52 1.06 1.48EPS Actual 2.11 1.63 1.18 1.50Revenue Estimate 3.14 B 2.75 B 2.41 B 2.72 BRevenue Actual 3.30 B 2.79 B 2.52 B 2.75 B

Stock Performance

Shares of IQVIA Holdings were trading at $217.28 as of April 20. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 71.79%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders should be satisfied going into this earnings release.

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