Aspen Insurance Holdings Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Aspen Insurance Holdings' (NYSE: AHL) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 27. Aspen Insurance Holdings is a Bermuda holding company which operates in the global markets for property and casualty insurance and reinsurance.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Aspen Insurance Holdings, with six of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Aspen Insurance Holdings better than competitor Platinum Underwriters Holdings overall. One out of six analysts rates Platinum Underwriters Holdings a buy, compared with two of eight for Aspen Insurance Holdings. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $452.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 5.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.26 per share. Estimates range from $0.01 to $0.55.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 97.6% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 97.4% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Aspen Insurance Holdings, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 90 posts in the past 30 days. Aspen Insurance Holdings has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community's assessment.

Management:
Over the past four quarters, revenue has increased 1.9% on average year over year.

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. 

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Aspen Insurance Holdings' movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.