Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Wilshire Bancorp's (Nasdaq: WIBC) 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 Monday, Jan. 23. Wilshire Bancorp offers a range of financial products and services through its subsidiary, Wilshire State Bank.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Wilshire Bancorp as a buy. But with 57.1% of analysts rating it a buy, Wilshire Bancorp is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 61.1% buys. Analysts don't like Wilshire Bancorp as much as competitor Bank of Marin Bancorp overall. Four out of five analysts rate Bank of Marin Bancorp a buy compared to four out of seven for Wilshire Bancorp. 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 $32.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.13 per share. Estimates range from $0.10 to $0.16.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 93.5% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 90.6% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Wilshire Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 37 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Wilshire Bancorp's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three 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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Net Margin

28.7%

8.7%

-115.6%

-92.9%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.