Earnings Preview: Spirit Airlines

Spirit Airlines SAVE will be releasing its next round of earnings this Wednesday, February 10. For all of the relevant information, here is your guide for Wednesday's Q4 earnings announcement.

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 are expecting Spirit Airlines to report a loss of $1.42 per share. Revenue will likely be around $516.01 million, according to the consensus estimate. Spirit Airlines reported a profit of $1.24 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $969.82 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 Wall Street estimate would represent a 214.52% decline in the company's earnings. Revenue would have fallen 46.79% from the same quarter last year. Spirit Airlines's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Stock Performance

Shares of Spirit Airlines were trading at $31.71 as of February 08. Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 28.94%. 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. Spirit Airlines is scheduled to hold the call at 10:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.