Amerisafe Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Amerisafe (Nasdaq: AMSF), as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings Tuesday. Amerisafe  is a holding company that markets and underwrites workers' compensation insurance through its subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Amerisafe, with four of seven rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Amerisafe better than competitor National Interstate overall. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Amerisafe for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $64.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.38 per share. Estimates range from $0.35 to $0.43.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.1% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 96.7% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Amerisafe, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 92 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Amerisafe's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Amerisafe's income has fallen year over year by an average of 31.4%.

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.

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