Cullen/Frost Bankers Earnings Preview

Cullen/Frost Bankers (NYSE: CFR  ) 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 Wednesday, Jan. 25. Cullen/Frost Bankers is a financial holding and bank holding company that provides an array of products and services throughout numerous Texas markets through its subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Cullen/Frost Bankers, with 13 out of 16 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Cullen/Frost Bankers as much as competitor BOK overall. Two out of nine analysts rate BOK a buy compared to zero out of 16 for Cullen/Frost Bankers. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate sell, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $229.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.88 per share. Estimates range from $0.82 to $0.94.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 76.6% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 79.2% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Cullen/Frost Bankers, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 25 posts in the past 30 days. Cullen/Frost Bankers' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Cullen/Frost Bankers' profit has risen year over year by an average of 4% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three 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 net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Net Margin	23.3%	24.5%	23%	23.6%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.