Earnings Preview for Abercrombie & Fitch

Abercrombie & Fitch ANF releases its next round of earnings this Tuesday, November 24. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to Abercrombie & Fitch's Q3 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 are expecting Abercrombie & Fitch's loss per share to be near $0.04 on sales of $732.26 million. In the same quarter last year, Abercrombie & Fitch reported EPS of $0.23 on revenue of $863.47 million.

What Are Analyst Estimates And Earnings Surprises, And Why Do They Matter?

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 analyst consensus estimate would represent a 117.39% decline in the company's EPS figure. Revenue would be down 15.2% on a year-over-year basis. Abercrombie & Fitch's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 35.83%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Abercrombie & Fitch is scheduled to hold the call at 08:30:00 ET and can be accessed here.