The first thing we find when we arrive at the page are the revenues and eps as in the following image:
In this example we see the presentation of revenue and earnings data for Mercado Libre in different periods compared to the years 2017 and 2018.
According to the chart we can see that the revenue for September 2018 increased compared to the revenue for the same period in 2017. We will also be able to observe an increase in all observed periods.
However, we see that EPS has been lower than the previous year in each period.
The December period we do not compare yet, as that data is missing for 2018. We will be able to make this comparison once they report the revenues and EPS in their statement for that period.
EPS
EPS ‘stands for earnings per share’ represents a very small part of the total earnings of a company, which corresponds to each share on the market.
The formula for its calculation is:
EPS= total earnings/number of shares in the company.
For example, let’s assume that ABC reported total earnings of 3,000,000 and has 11,000,000 shares in the stock market. The EPS would be:
3.000.000/11.000.000= 0,27
This ratio is published by the company in the earnings presentation so you don’t have to calculate it, just look it up on the financial portals.
EPS should be compared with previous periods, or with other companies in the same sector and industry. Since it is not always positive, it can happen that the company closes its financial year with losses and in that case it will be calculated by dividing the losses by the number of shares. You can see this in the image, that of revenue and eps, that there were times when there were profits and others when there were losses.