Toll Brothers's Earnings Outlook

Toll Brothers (NYSE:TOL) releases its next round of earnings this Monday, December 07. Here is Benzinga's essential guide to Toll Brothers's Q4 earnings report.

Net Income, Earnings, 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 analysts see Toll Brothers reporting earnings of $1.23 per share on revenue of $2.07 billion. Toll Brothers reported a profit of $1.41 per share when it published results during the same quarter last year. Sales in that period totaled $2.38 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.

If the company were to match the consensus estimate when it reports Monday, earnings would be down 12.77%. Revenue would be down 12.99% from the same quarter last year. In comparison to analyst estimates in the past, here is how the company's reported EPS stacks up:

Stock Performance

Shares of Toll Brothers were trading at $47.26 as of December 03. Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 13.21%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders are probably happy going into this earnings release.

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