L-3 Communications Fourth Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component L-3 Communications (NYSE:LLL) will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow, Wednesday, January 30, 2013. L-3 Communications is a system contractor in aircraft modernization and maintenance, serving customers in commercial telecommunications and government.

L-3 Communications Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is for profit of $2.12 per share, a decline of 16.5% from the company’s actual earnings for the year-ago quarter. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $2.20. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at $2.12 during the last month. For the year, analysts are projecting net income of $7.89 per share, a decline of 10.8% from last year.

Past Earnings Performance: Last quarter, the company beat estimates by 6 cents, coming in at profit of $1.92 a share versus the estimate of net income of $1.86 a share. It marked the fourth straight quarter of beating estimates.

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A Look Back: In the third quarter, profit fell 18.3% to $192 million ($1.97 a share) from $235 million ($2.24 a share) the year earlier, but exceeded analyst expectations. Revenue fell 13.3% to $3.28 billion from $3.79 billion.

Here’s how L-3 Communications traded following its last earnings report 3 months ago and leading up to its upcoming earnings report this week: