Watch City National's (NYSE: CYN) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. City National is a bank holding and a financial holding company that provides a range of banking, investing, and trust services to its clients through its wholly-owned banking subsidiary, City National Bank.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on City National with 16 of 21 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like City National as much as competitor SVB Financial Group overall. Seven out of 15 analysts rate SVB Financial Group a buy compared to four of 21 for City National. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $263.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 13.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.78 per share. Estimates range from $0.71 to $0.85.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see CYN as a good bet, with 72.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 63.8% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools are bullish on City National, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 46 posts in the past 30 days. City National's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
City National's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than threefold. Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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

13.5%

13.2%

12.2%

12.5%

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