Ensign Group Earnings Preview

Ensign Group (Nasdaq: ENSG  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Nov. 2. The Ensign Group, through its subsidiaries, provides skilled nursing and rehabilitative care services through the operation of 79 facilities located in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Ensign Group, with four of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Ensign Group as much as competitor Sunrise Senior Living overall. Ensign Group's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $199.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.61 per share. Estimates range from $0.60 to $0.65.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 97.5% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 96.7% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Ensign Group and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 112 posts in the past 30 days. Ensign Group has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Ensign Group's profit has risen year over year by an average of 33.5% 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 gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	20.0%	19.8%	19.0%	18.0%
Operating Margin	12.9%	13.0%	12.3%	11.3%
Net Margin	7.0%	7.0%	6.8%	6.0%

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

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.