Westar Energy Earnings Preview

Westar Energy (NYSE: WR  ) 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 on Thursday, August 4. Westar Energy is an electric utility. It produces, transmits and sells electricity at retail in Kansas and at wholesale in a multi-state region in the central United States under the regulation of the KCC and FERC.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Westar Energy, with six of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Westar Energy as much as competitor Great Plains Energy overall. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $502.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.44 per share. Estimates range from $0.41 to $0.48.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 97.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 96.2% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Westar Energy, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 40 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Westar Energy's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Westar Energy's profit has risen year over year by an average of 7.1%. 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	43.6%	39.7%	51.2%	47.7%
Net Margin	6.6%	1.1%	17.8%	10.8%

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