Investors never know what to expect for WGL Holdings (NYSE: WGL), as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday. WGL Holdings, through its subsidiaries, sells and delivers natural gas and provides a range of energy-related products and services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on WGL Holdings as four analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts like WGL Holdings better than competitor Piedmont Natural Gas overall. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $473.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.34 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.38 to a loss of $0.30.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 100% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 95.5% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on WGL Holdings, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 16 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, WGL Holdings' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Over the last four quarters, revenue has increased 6.3% on average year over year. The company's gross margin shrank by 3 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 6.7% while cost of sales rose 10.5% to $423.4 million from a year earlier.

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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

13.6%

21.7%

22.7%

2.8%

Net Margin

0.7%

7.8%

8.2%

(5.5%)

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks