Benzinga | Apr 22, 2021 12:22PM EDT

Preview: BJ's Restaurants's Earnings

BJ's Restaurants (NASDAQ:BJRI) announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, April 22. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q1 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 are expecting BJ's Restaurants's loss per share to be near $0.66 on sales of $205.12 million. In the same quarter last year, BJ's Restaurants reported a loss per share of $0.1 on sales of $254.59 million.

Related content: Benzinga's Full Earnings Calendar

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 560.0%. Sales would be down 19.43% from the year-ago period. BJ's Restaurants's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q4 2021 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate -0.7 -0.71 -1.91 0.08EPS Actual -0.8 -0.44 -0.99 -0.10Revenue Estimate 202.07 M 182.96 M 131.27 M 273.31 MRevenue Actual 197.00 M 198.89 M 128.02 M 254.59 M

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 255.16%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can relax going into this earnings release. Long-term shareholders are already enjoying 12-month gains prior to the announcement.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. BJ's Restaurants is scheduled to hold the call at 17:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.