BRE Properties Earnings Preview

Watch BRE Properties' (NYSE: BRE  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Tuesday. BRE Properties is a self-administered real estate investment trust focused on the development, acquisition, and management of multifamily apartment communities in the western United States.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on BRE Properties with 13 of 19 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like BRE Properties as much as competitor Apartment Investment and Management overall. Five out of 18 analysts rate Apartment Investment and Management a buy compared with five of 19 for BRE Properties. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $92.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.50 per share. Estimates range from $0.45 to $0.55.

What our community says:
Most CAPS Al- Stars are skeptical of BRE Properties' prospects, with 64.3% giving it an "underperform" rating. Like the All Stars, the community is also not a fan of BRE Properties with 55% granting it "underperform" rating. Fools are bearish on BRE Properties, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 31 posts in the past 30 days. BRE Properties' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Over the last four quarters, revenue has increased 0.2% on average year over year.

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	13.7%	3.7%	25.3%	22.4%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on BRE Properties movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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