Investors are bracing for the worst and waiting to see whether TCF (NYSE: TCB) will fall short of Wall Street forecasts again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, July 21. TCF is a financial holding company that provides branch banking, retail lending, commercial banking, leasing, equipment finance, and inventory finance.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on TCF, with nine of 17 rating it a hold. Analysts like TCF better than competitor Associated Banc-Corp overall. Three out of 13 rate Associated Banc-Corp a buy, compared with six of 17 for TCF. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $176 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.21 per share. Estimates range from $0.17 to $0.25.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 82% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 78.9% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on TCF, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 55 posts in the past 30 days. TCF's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
TCF's profit has risen year over year by an average of 62%. Revenue has fallen in the past two 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 8.5% 8% 9.7% 11.8%
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