Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Magellan Health Services (Nasdaq: MGLN) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, April 27. Magellan Health Services is engaged in the specialty managed healthcare business.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with four analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts like Magellan Health Services better than competitor Centene overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $779.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.5% 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 $0.90.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are in strong support of the stock, with 100% granting it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community backs the All-Stars, with 87.1% giving it a rating of "outperform." Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Magellan Health Services, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Magellan Health Services' income has fallen year-over-year by an average of 2.2% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins serve as an illustration of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. For the last two quarters, Magellan Health Services has seen a decline in operating margins year-over-year. Operating margins reflect the total sales revenue that the company retains after costs. Here are Magellan Health Services' reported margins for the last four quarters: 

Quarter Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1
Gross Margin 8.2% 7.4% 10.9% 10.2%
Operating Margin 6.0% 5.3% 8.3% 8.3%
Net Margin 4.1% 4.6% 4.9% 5.0%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Magellan Health Services movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.