Associated Banc-Corp (Nasdaq: ASBC) beat estimates by $0.03 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Oct. 20. Associated Banc-Corp is a bank holding company that, through its network of bank and non-bank subsidiaries, provides banking and related financial services to individual and corporate customers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Associated Banc-Corp, with nine of 15 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Associated Banc-Corp as much as competitor TCF overall. Eight out of 17 analysts rate TCF a buy compared to five of 15 for Associated Banc-Corp. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $234.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.20 per share. Estimates range from $0.16 to $0.25.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see ASBC as a good bet, with 56.1% assigning it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 71.4% give it an outperform rating. Fools have embraced Associated Banc-Corp, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 45 posts in the past 30 days. Associated Banc-Corp's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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 Q2 Q1 Q4 Q3
Net Margin 11% 8.8% 5.1% 5.1%

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