Earnings talk: What the financial terms mean

Quarterly and annual financial reports feature a language of their own. Here are some definitions of the more commonly used terms you’ll find.

Revenues: Total dollar amount received for goods and services provided.

Operating earnings: Revenues minus cost of sales and other operating expenses. This figure gives insight to how well a company’s ongoing operations performed.

Net earnings: Operating earnings minus taxes, interest and other non-operating expenses.

Earnings per share: Net earnings divided by the number of shares outstanding. It’s used to measure a company’s profitability.

Non-recurring item: A one-time event, either a charge or a gain, that occurs for unusual reasons and is not representative of normal, ongoing operations. Examples include the cost of acquiring another business or the gain from selling a business.