LaSalle Hotel Properties Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of LaSalle Hotel Properties' (NYSE: LHO  ) 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 Wednesday. LaSalle Hotel Properties is a Maryland real estate investment trust engaged in buying, redeveloping, and leasing mainly upscale and luxury full-service hotels located in convention, resort, and major urban business markets.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on LaSalle Hotel Properties while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts like LaSalle Hotel Properties better than competitor DiamondRock Hospitality overall. Four out of 15 analysts rate DiamondRock Hospitality a buy compared to seven of 14 for LaSalle Hotel Properties.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $195.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 14.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.49 per share. Estimates range from $0.44 to $0.56.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 83.3% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 75% give it an outperform rating. Fools are bullish on LaSalle Hotel Properties, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 19 posts in the past 30 days. LaSalle Hotel Properties' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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	11.9%	(7.8%)	(7.1%)	9.9%

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