Bank Mutual Earnings Preview

Bank Mutual (Nasdaq: BKMU  ) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will surpass expectations this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Jan. 26. Bank Mutual is a unitary savings and loan bank holding company, which through its subsidiary bank offers a full range of financial services to customers who are mainly located in the state of Wisconsin.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Bank Mutual with analysts unanimously rating it hold. Analysts don't like Bank Mutual as much as competitor HF overall. One out of one analysts rate HF a buy compared to zero of two for Bank Mutual. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steadfast in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $21.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.02 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are split on BKMU, with 47.1% rating it an "outperform" and 52.9% giving it an "underperform" rating. The community is split on the stock with 47.8% Fools granting it an "outperform" rating and 52.2% an "underperform" rating. Fools are bearish on Bank Mutual, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 18 posts in the past 30 days. Bank Mutual's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

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.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.