If Stifel (NYSE: SF) misses estimates again it will be the third consecutive quarter for the company. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Feb. 15. Stifel, through its wholly owned subsidiaries, is primarily engaged in financial services such as retail brokerage, securities trading, investment banking, investment advisory, retail, and consumer and commercial banking.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Stifel with four of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Stifel as much as competitor Knight Capital Group overall. Four out of eight analysts rate Knight Capital Group a buy compared to three of seven for Stifel.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $347.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 13.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.43 per share. Estimates range from $0.39 to $0.46.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 81.5% awarding it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community backs the All-Stars, with 88.5% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are impressed with Stifel, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 26 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Stifel, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

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

6.5%

0.9%

8.4%

10.2%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.