After beating estimates last quarter by $0.07, Fifth Third Bancorp (Nasdaq: FITB) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Oct. 20. Fifth Third Bancorp is a diversified financial services company which conducts its lending, deposit gathering, transaction processing, and service advisory activities through its subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 14 analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts like Fifth Third Bancorp better than competitor SunTrust Banks overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.49 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 14.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.33 per share. Estimates range from $0.31 to $0.36.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see FITB as a good bet, with 60.7% granting it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 64.2% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools are bullish on Fifth Third Bancorp and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 416 posts in the past 30 days. Fifth Third Bancorp's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls a bit short of the Fool community sentiment.

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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Net Margin

19.8%

16.1%

18.9%

12.2%

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