Bank of the Ozarks Earnings Preview (OZRK)

Bank of the Ozarks Earnings Preview

By Motley Fool Staff | More Articles
October 10, 2011 | Comments (1)

Watch Bank of the Ozarks' (Nasdaq: OZRK ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, October 12. Bank of the Ozarks provides a range of retail and commercial banking services. It also provides mortgage lending and corporate cash management services, including wholesale lock box services and remote deposit capture services.

What analysts say:

Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Bank of the Ozarks with eight of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Bank of the Ozarks better than competitor BancorpSouth overall. One out of 10 analysts rate BancorpSouth a buy, compared to two of 10 for Bank of the Ozarks.
Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $55.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 35.4% from the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.41 per share. Estimates range from $0.37 to $0.44.

What our community says:
Most CAPS All-Stars are skeptical of OZRK prospects, with 69.8% giving it an "underperform" rating. While the All-Stars do not like OZRK, the community likes it with 60.2% granting it an "overperform" rating The Fool community on the other hand is more skeptical with 39.8% awarding it an "underperform" rating. Fools are bearish on Bank of the Ozarks, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 57 posts in the past 30 days. Bank of the Ozarks' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Bank of the Ozarks' 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 net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Net Margin	39.9%	25.7%	27.9%	30.5%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Bank of the Ozarks movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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Comments from our Foolish Readers

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Report this Comment On October 10, 2011, at 4:13 PM, SirInvestor wrote:

This bank has constantly beat analysts expectations in both revenue and earnings growth. They have a portfolio of risky loans that pay high interest rates, but are almost entirely guaranteed by the U.S. government. With the acquisitions of several banks this year, they have grown their deposits, and it is very likely that they will acquire more banks in the future. I see no reason why they won't beat analyst earnings numbers on Wednesday and at least match last year's quarterly earnings of about $0.60.