Lexington Realty Earnings Preview

After beating estimates last quarter by $0.02, Lexington Realty (NYSE: LXP  ) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings Tuesday. Lexington Realty is a self-managed and self-administered Maryland statutory real-estate investment trust that acquires, owns, and manages a geographically diversified portfolio of net leased office, industrial, and retail properties.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Lexington Realty, with seven of eight rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Lexington Realty better than competitor Investors Real Estate overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $81.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 5.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.22 per share. Estimates range from $0.21 to $0.23.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 93.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 89.6% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Lexington Realty, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 56 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Lexington Realty, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

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	(18.9%)	13.3%	7%	(28.0%)

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

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