Greenhill & Co. (NYSE: GHL) beat estimates by $0.07 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Greenhill & Co., together with its subsidiaries, operates as an independent investment banking company in North America and Europe.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts think investors should stand pat on Greenhill with three of four analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Greenhill as much as competitor Evercore Partners overall. Two out of six analysts rate Evercore Partners a buy compared to one of four for Greenhill. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $71.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 14.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 32 cents per share. Estimates range from 26 cents to 47 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 94.4% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars with 85.7% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Greenhill, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 45 posts in the past 30 days. Greenhill's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Greenhill's income has fallen year over year by an average of more than twofold. 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.

Quarter

Q1

Q4

Q3

Q2

Net Margin

-3.3%

3.2%

17.2%

21%

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