Benzinga | May 5, 2021 10:06AM EDT

Acceleron Pharma's Earnings: A Preview

Acceleron Pharma (NASDAQ:XLRN) announces its next round of earnings this Thursday, May 06. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Thursday's Q1 earnings announcement.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Wall Street expects an EPS loss of $0.81 and sales around $28.89 million. Acceleron Pharma's loss in the same period a year ago was $0.95 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $4.34 million.

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 match the consensus estimate when it reports Thursday, EPS would be up 14.74%. Revenue would be up 565.06% on a year-over-year basis. The company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this: Quarter Q4 2021 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate -0.59 -0.61 -0.57 -0.86EPS Actual -0.95 -0.66 -0.34 -0.95Revenue Estimate 32.31 M 26.27 M 30.08 M 5.26 MRevenue Actual 25.87 M 22.56 M 39.75 M 4.34 M

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares of Acceleron Pharma are up 17.54%.

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