American States Water Co. Earnings Preview

American States Water Co. (NYSE: AWR  ) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings Monday. American States Water Co. is a holding company for Golden State Water Co., Chaparral City Water Co., and American States Utility Services. GSWC, a public utility company, is engaged in the purchase, production, distribution, and sale of water in California and also distributes electricity in several areas.

What analysts say

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on American States Water Co., with five of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like American States Water Co. as much as competitor California Water Service Group overall. Four out of nine analysts rate California Water Service Group a buy compared to three of eight for American States Water Co. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $105.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 10.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.57 per share. Estimates range from $0.53 to $0.59.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 92.1% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 92.3% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about American States Water Co., though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 41 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, American States Water Co.'s CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management
American States Water's profit has risen year over year by an average of 25.7%. 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 and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	65.6%	64.6%	60.7%	60.8%
Net Margin	8.0%	8.8%	6.0%	9.4%

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