All Eyes on the Earnings Picture
Earnings season can be a volatile period for stocks.
This week, Craig Siminski, of CMS Retirement Income Planning, shares with us an article discussing how the marketplace rewards some companies and punishes others as investors digest and respond to new data:
Publicly traded companies are required to disclose their financial performance to regulators and shareholders on a quarterly basis. News organizations and investors pay close attention to these reports because they tend to impact stock prices, with strong earnings driving share prices up, and vice versa.
In the first quarter of 2023, the earnings of companies in the S&P 500 Index declined 2.2%. This was a much stronger showing than Wall Street analysts expected after profits fell 4.6% in the previous quarter. On a positive note, revenues grew 2.9% in Q1 as consumer spending faced down inflation.
Earnings season can be a volatile six-week period for stocks. As investors digest and respond to new data, the marketplace rewards some companies and punishes others.
Measuring Performance
A quarterly report typically includes unaudited financial statements, a discussion of the business conditions that affected financial results, and some guidance about how the company expects to perform in the following quarters. Financial statements reveal the quarter’s profit, or net income, which must be calculated according to generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP). This typically involves subtracting operating expenses (including depreciation, taxes, and other expenses) from gross income.
Pro-forma (or adjusted) earnings may present an alternative view of financial performance by excluding nonrecurring expenses such as restructuring costs, interest payments, taxes, and other unique events.
Although the Securities and Exchange Commission has rules governing pro-forma financial statements, companies still have a great deal of leeway to highlight the positive and minimize the negative in these reports. There may be a vast difference between pro-forma and GAAP earnings.
Earnings per share (EPS) represents the portion of total profit that applies to each outstanding share of company stock. EPS is often the figure that makes headlines, and the financial media tends to focus on whether companies meet, beat, or fall short of the consensus estimate of Wall Street analysts.
A company can see its stock price surge by losing less money than expected or can log billions in profits and still disappoint investors…
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Craig Siminski is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, with more than 25 years of experience. His goal is to provide families, business owners, and their employees with assistance in building their financial freedom.
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