Taubman Centers (NYSE: TCO) 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, Oct. 20. Taubman Centers is engaged in the ownership, management, leasing, acquisition, disposition, development, and expansion of regional and super-regional retail shopping centers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Taubman Centers with seven of 11 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Taubman Centers better than competitor Regency Centers overall. Four out of 16 analysts rate Regency Centers a buy compared to four of 11 for Taubman Centers. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $150.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 3.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.63 per share. Estimates range from $0.61 to $0.66.

What our community says:
Most CAPS All-Stars are skeptical of TCO prospects, with 79.5% granting it an "underperform" rating. Like the All-Stars, the community is also not a fan of Taubman Centers, with 68.2% assigning it "underperform" rating. Fools are bearish on Taubman Centers, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 55 posts in the past 30 days. Taubman Centers' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Taubman Centers' profit has risen year over year by an average of 78.4% over the past five quarters. 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 8.0% 9.5% 19.3% 3.1%
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