Monarch Casino & Resort (Nasdaq: MCRI) will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 20. Monarch Casino & Resort owns and operates the tropically themed Atlantis Casino Resort Spa, a hotel/casino facility in Reno, Nev. Its other subsidiary owns a parcel of land located adjacent to the Atlantis.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Monarch Casino & Resort, with two of three analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Monarch Casino & Resort as much as competitor Ameristar Casinos overall. Nine out of 15 analysts rate Ameristar Casinos a buy, compared with one of three for Monarch Casino & Resort. That rating hasn't budged in three months, as analysts have remained unchanged in their opinion of the stock.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $36.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.2% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.14 per share. Estimates range from $0.12 to $0.17.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 90.9% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 77.6% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Monarch Casino & Resort, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 44 posts in the past 30 days. Monarch Casino & Resort's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
Monarch Casino & Resort's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases. The company's gross margin shrank by 3.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 3.1% while cost of sales rose 3.6% to $16.3 million from a year earlier.

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, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters. 

Quarter Q1 Q4 Q3 Q2
Gross Margin 50.9% 49.8% 54.6% 54.2%
Operating Margin 8% 2.8% 11.7% 12.3%
Net Margin 4.6% 1.4% 7.1% 7.4%
One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Monarch Casino & Resort's movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.