Cincinnati Bell Earnings Preview

If Cincinnati Bell (NYSE: CBB  ) misses estimates again it will be the consecutive quarter for the company. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Cincinnati Bell is a full-service regional provider of data and voice communications services and equipment over wireline and wireless networks.

What analysts say

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Cincinnati Bell with five of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Cincinnati Bell as much as competitor General Communication overall. Two out of four analysts rate General Communication a buy compared to two of eight for Cincinnati Bell. Analysts' rating of Cincinnati Bell has stayed constant from three months prior.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $356.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.08 per share. Estimates range from $0.06 to $0.09.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 97.4% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 91.6% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Cincinnati Bell, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 42 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Cincinnati Bell's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.8 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 11.5% while cost of sales rose 18.9% to $159.2 million from a year earlier.

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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