Benzinga | Jan 11, 2021 10:13AM EST

A Preview Of EXFO's Earnings

EXFO (NASDAQ:EXFO) unveils its next round of earnings this Tuesday, January 12. Get prepared with Benzinga's ultimate preview for EXFO's Q1 earnings.

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

Analysts expect EXFO earnings of $0.03 per share. Revenue will likely be around $70.89 million, according to the consensus estimate. A year ago during the same quarter, EXFO reported it reached break-even status on sales of $73.55 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.

The analyst consensus estimate would represent no change in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 3.62% on a year-over-year basis. EXFO's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q4 2020 Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020EPS Estimate 0.06 -0.03 -0.01 0.04EPS Actual -0.02 0.01 -0.16 0Revenue Estimate 65.33 M 59.59 M 61.78 M 72.96 MRevenue Actual 70.57 M 66.15 M 55.31 M 73.55 M

Stock Performance

Shares of EXFO were trading at $3.35 as of January 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 16.0%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders are probably a little upset going into this earnings release.

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