First Cash Financial Services Earnings Preview

Watch First Cash Financial Services' (Nasdaq: FCFS  ) earnings report to see whether it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 20. First Cash Financial Services is an operator of pawn and consumer-finance stores in the United States and Mexico.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back First Cash Financial Services, with five of eight rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like First Cash Financial Services as much as competitor Cash America International overall. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of First Cash Financial Services for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $118.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.47 per share. Estimates range from $0.45 to $0.49.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 96% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 95.8% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced First Cash Financial Services and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 203 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, First Cash Financial Services' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
First Cash Financial Services' profit has risen year over year by an average of 34.5%.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters. 

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	58.2%	58.4%	59.5%	59.2%
Operating Margin	20.2%	22.2%	20%	18%
Net Margin	18.7%	15.1%	13.2%	12.1%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on First Cash Financial Services' movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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