Investors are bracing for the worst and waiting to see if Synovus (NYSE: SNV) will fall short of Wall Street forecasts for the consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Synovus is a financial services and a bank holding company that provides financial services, including commercial and retail banking, financial management, insurance, mortgage, and leasing services to its customers through its subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Synovus, with 17 of 23 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Synovus as much as competitor First Horizon National overall. Ten out of 24 analysts rate First Horizon National a buy compared with four of 23 for Synovus. 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 $303.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 6.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.06 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.12 to a loss of $0.02.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 86.8% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 86.3% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Synovus and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 179 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Synovus, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
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

(21.8%)

(42.1%)

(44.4%)

(55.4%)

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