Benzinga | Nov 24, 2020 10:07AM EST

Earnings Outlook for Deere

Deere (NYSE: DE) announces its next round of earnings this Wednesday, November 25. Here is Benzinga's everything-that-matters guide for this Wednesday's Q4 earnings announcement.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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 expect Deere's EPS to be near $1.37 on sales of $7.65 billion. Deere reported a profit of $2.14 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $8.70 billion.

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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent a 35.98% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be down 12.1% 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 2019EPS Estimate 1.26 1.80 1.26 2.14EPS Actual 2.57 2.11 1.63 2.14Revenue Estimate 6.70 B 7.76 B 6.42 B 8.44 BRevenue Actual 8.93 B 9.25 B 6.53 B 8.70 B

Stock Performance

Shares of Deere were trading at $261.12 as of November 23. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 55.17%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Deere is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.