Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Medical Properties Trust's (NYSE: MPW) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, August 4. Medical Properties Trust is a self-advised real estate investment trust which acquires, develops, leases, and makes other investments in health-care facilities providing state-of-the-art health-care services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Medical Properties Trust with five of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Medical Properties Trust as much as competitor National Health Investors overall. Two out of five analysts rate National Health Investors a buy compared to one of seven for Medical Properties Trust.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $38.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.18 per share. Estimates range from $0.17 to $0.19.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 95.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars, with 91.5% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Medical Properties Trust and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 102 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Medical Properties Trust, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
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 30.2% 35.7% 30.9% 19.9%

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