Cash America International (NYSE: CSH) beat estimates by $0.12 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Cash America International provides pawn loans, short-term cash advances, check cashing services and other specialty financial services to consumers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Cash America International, with six of nine rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Cash America International as much as competitor EZCORP overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $329.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.78 per share. Estimates range from $0.77 to $0.79.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.1% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 92% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Cash America International, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 68 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Cash America International, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Cash America International's profit has risen year over year by an average of 16.6%. The company's gross margin shrank by 10.4 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 13.5% while cost of sales rose 54.6% to $139.1 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

60.8%

71.6%

76.9%

75.9%

Operating Margin

17.8%

16.6%

15.8%

13.4%

Net Margin

10.2%

9.4%

8.7%

7.2%

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