First Niagara Financial Group Earnings Preview

After beating estimates last quarter by $0.01, First Niagara Financial Group (Nasdaq: FNFG  ) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. First Niagara Financial Group provides retail and commercial banking as well as other financial services through its wholly-owned, federally chartered savings bank subsidiary, First Niagara Bank.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back First Niagara Financial Group, with seven of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like First Niagara Financial Group better than competitor Hudson City Bancorp 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 $303.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 43.8% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.26 per share. Estimates range from $0.25 to $0.28.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 83.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 90.3% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on First Niagara Financial Group, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 66 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, First Niagara Financial Group's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
First Niagara Financial Group's profit has risen year over year by an average of 99.7% over the past five 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	4%	17.2%	17.7%	18.2%

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