Benzinga | Feb 22, 2021 10:29AM EST

Cabot Oil & Gas's Earnings Outlook

Cabot Oil & Gas (NYSE:COG) releases its next round of earnings this Tuesday, February 23. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to Cabot Oil & Gas's Q4 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

Analysts predict Cabot Oil & Gas will report earnings of $0.21 per share on revenue of $417.46 million. Cabot Oil & Gas earnings in the same period a year ago was $0.3 per share. Quarterly sales came in at $461.37 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 a 30.0% decrease in the company's earnings. Sales would be down 9.52% from the year-ago period. Cabot Oil & Gas's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past like this:

Quarter Q3 2020 Q2 2020 Q1 2020 Q4 2020EPS Estimate 0.07 0.02 0.13 0.3EPS Actual 0.09 0.05 0.14 0.3Revenue Estimate 349.12 M 304.04 M 384.63 M 477.14 MRevenue Actual 291.04 M 332.35 M 386.46 M 461.37 M

Stock Performance

For a full 12 months, the return has risen by 25.68%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably relaxed going into this earnings release. Long-term shareholders are already enjoying 12-month gains prior to the announcement.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Cabot Oil & Gas is scheduled to hold the call at 11:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.