Ruth's Chris Steak House Earnings Preview

Ruth's Chris Steak House (Nasdaq: RUTH  ) met its estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, July 29. Ruth's Hospitality Group, together with its subsidiaries, operates restaurants in the United States and internationally. It owns the Ruth's Chris Steak House, Mitchell's Fish Market, Columbus Fish Market, Mitchell's Steakhouse and Cameron's Steakhouse.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Ruth's Chris Steak House, with four of seven rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Ruth's Chris Steak House better than competitor Benihana overall. While analysts still rate the stock a Moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it, compared to three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $93.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 4.8% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.11 per share. Estimates range from $0.09 cents to $0.14.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 94.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 87.4% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Ruth's Chris Steak House and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 141 posts in the past 30 days. Ruth's Chris Steak House's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

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. 

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