On Tuesday, May 18, Trip.com Group (NASDAQ:TCOM) will release its latest earnings report. Benzinga's outlook for Trip.com Group is included in the following report.

What Are Earnings, Net Income, 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

Trip.com Group's per-share loss will be near $0.33 on sales of $461.12 million, according to Wall Street analysts. In the same quarter last year, Trip.com Group reported EPS of $0.53 on revenue of $669.00 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.

If the company were to report earnings in line when it publishes results Tuesday, earnings would be up 37.74%. Revenue would be down 31.07% from the year-ago period. Here is how the company's reported EPS has stacked up against analyst estimates in the past:

Stock Performance

Over the last 52-week period, shares are up 47.05%. Given that these returns are generally positive, long-term shareholders can be content going into this earnings release.

Do not be surprised to see the stock move on comments made during its conference call. Trip.com Group is scheduled to hold the call at 20:00:00 ET and can be accessed here.