Camden Property Earnings Preview

Investors hope Camden Property (NYSE: CPT  ) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.04 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Camden Property is a real estate investment trust, which is engaged in the ownership, development, construction, and management of multifamily apartment communities.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Camden Property with 14 of 22 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Camden Property as much as competitor Essex Property Trust overall. Thirteen out of 23 analysts rate Essex Property Trust a buy compared with six of 22 for Camden Property. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $139.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.40 per share. Estimates range from $0.37 to $0.42.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see CPT as a good bet, with 70.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 58.3% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools have embraced Camden Property, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 26 posts in the past 30 days. Camden Property's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two 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 net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Net Margin	5.2%	11.6%	2.1%	2.6%

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