Central Vermont Public Services Earnings Preview

Central Vermont Public Services (NYSE: CV  ) 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 Tuesday, Nov. 8. Central Vermont Public Service is an electric utility in Vermont that engages mainly in the purchase, production, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Central Vermont Public Services for the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $93.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.74 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 100% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 96.4% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Central Vermont Public Services, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 16 posts in the past 30 days. Central Vermont Public Services has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Central Vermont Public Services' profit has risen year over year by an average of 64.1% over the past five quarters. The company's revenue has now risen for two 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 gross and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	11.6%	19.5%	17.3%	25.7%
Net Margin	0.9%	8.7%	6.2%	11.7%

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