Earnings season provides a great opportunity for equity traders to gain insight on stocks they have invested in, while also offering context to potential share price moves. Read on for more on what earnings season is, earning announcement dates to know, and what to look for in an earnings report.
What is Earnings Season & Why Is It Important?
Earnings season is a period each fiscal quarter, usually lasting several weeks, where many of the largest listed companies announce their latest financial accounts. An earnings report consists of revenue, net income, earnings per share (EPS) and forward outlook, amongst a bevy of other data points, which can help to provide investors with insight relating to the current health and outlook for the company. This information can be found on sec.gov[1], various financial publications, and individual companies' websites.
Earnings season is important because it helps market participants glean information from the companies that they are monitoring along with the broader index. For example, a strong Apple (AAPL) earnings report may see investors bullish on Nasdaq 100[2] futures, a concept discussed further below when looking at bellwether stocks.
Something else that can accompany an earnings release is an earnings call. This is a conference between the company and analysts, press and investors which discusses the outcome of an earnings report and, in many cases, opens the floor for questions to company management. Such scrutiny of the reports can enable traders to access more information to further inform their decisions, although not all companies hold earnings calls.
When is Earnings Season & When Do Reports Come Out?
Earnings season takes place typically a few weeks after each quarter ends (December, March, June, September). In other words, earnings seasons begins around January-February (Q4 results), April-May (Q1
