Energen Earnings Preview

Energen (NYSE: EGN  ) 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 Thursday, Jan. 26. Energen is engaged in the development, acquisition, exploration, and production of oil, natural gas, and natural gas liquids in the continental U.S., and in the purchase, distribution, and sale of natural gas in central and north Alabama.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Energen, with seven out of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Energen better than competitor National Fuel Gas overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $386.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.98 per share. Estimates range from $0.93 to $1.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 98.7% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 96.7% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Energen, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 46 posts in the past 30 days. Energen has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Energen's profit has risen year over year by an average of 40.1% over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue increase last quarter snaps a streak of two consecutive quarters of revenue declines. Revenue rose 28% in the third quarter and fell 1% in the second quarter and 15.4% in the first quarter.

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	64.7%	58.9%	51.6%	58.9%
Net Margin	23.1%	19.2%	19.4%	21.5%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.