Investors never know what to expect for Central Vermont Public Services (NYSE: CV), as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, March 14. Central Vermont Public Service is an electric utility in Vermont that engages mainly in the purchase, production, transmission, distribution, and sale of electricity.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The company's rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steadfast in their opinion of the stock.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.43 per share. Estimates range from $0.40 to $0.46.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are strongly backing the stock, with 100% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 95.3% awarding it a rating of outperform. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Central Vermont Public Services' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 7.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 3.1% while cost of sales rose 13.6% to $72.1 million from a year earlier.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Central Vermont Public Services saw a decrease in its net margins in the last two quarters year over year. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. See how Central Vermont Public Services has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

18.1%

11.6%

19.5%

17.3%

Net Margin

(9.8%)

0.9%

8.7%

6.2%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.