Benzinga | Feb 15, 2021 10:25AM EST

A Preview Of US Foods Holding's Earnings

US Foods Holding (NYSE:USFD) announces its next round of earnings this Tuesday, February 16. Here is Benzinga's look at US Foods Holding's Q4 earnings report.

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

Wall Street expects EPS of $0.14 and sales around $6.14 billion. In the same quarter last year, US Foods Holding reported EPS of $0.66 on revenue of $6.93 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 78.79% decrease in the company's earnings. Revenue would be down 11.45% from the same quarter last year. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate 0.17 -0.35 0.28 0.66EPS Actual 0.15 -0.25 0.15 0.66Revenue Estimate 5.87 B 4.23 B 6.31 B 7.06 BRevenue Actual 5.85 B 4.56 B 6.34 B 6.93 B

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are down 7.59%. Given that these returns are generally negative, long-term shareholders won't be happy going into this earnings release.

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