WestAmerica Bancorp (Nasdaq: WABC) didn't hit the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors hope that it will rebound this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Wednesday. Westamerica Bancorp provides a range of banking services to individual and corporate customers in Northern and Central California through its subsidiary bank, Westamerica Bank.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on WestAmerica Bancorp with six of nine analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like WestAmerica Bancorp as much as competitor Cathay General Bancorp overall. Five out of 11 analysts rate Cathay General Bancorp a buy compared with two of nine for WestAmerica Bancorp. 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 $69 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 3.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.80 per share. Estimates range from $0.78 to $0.81.

What our community says:
Most CAPS All-Stars are skeptical of WestAmerica Bancorp's prospects, with 77.4% giving it an "underperform" rating. Like the All-Stars, the community is also not a fan of WestAmerica Bancorp with 62.9% awarding it "underperform" rating. Fools are skeptical of WestAmerica Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 32 posts in the past 30 days. In line with the majority sentiment, WestAmerica Bancorp has a bearish CAPS rating of just two out of five stars.

Management:
WestAmerica Bancorp's income has fallen year over year by an average of 5.7% over the past five quarters. 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

31.1%

33.3%

33.9%

33.7%

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