Investors hope Glacier Bancorp (Nasdaq: GBCI) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by one cent in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Glacier Bancorp is a regional multi-bank holding company, which provides banking services to individual and corporate customers in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and Washington through its bank subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Glacier Bancorp with seven of 11 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Glacier Bancorp as much as competitor First Interstate BancSystem overall. Three out of six analysts rate First Interstate BancSystem a buy compared with three of 11 for Glacier Bancorp. Glacier Bancorp's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $76.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.16 per share. Estimates range from $0.13 to $0.19.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see Glacier Bancorp as a good bet, with 57.1% granting it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All Stars as 64.9% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools are gung-ho about Glacier Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 34 posts in the past 30 days. Glacier Bancorp's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Glacier Bancorp's income has fallen year over year by an average of more than twofold. Revenue has fallen for the past three 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

12.2%

10.3%

10.0%

13.9%

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