KeyCorp (NYSE: KEY) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. KeyCorp is a financial holding company that offers its clients retail and commercial banking, commercial leasing, investment management, and consumer finance and investment banking products and services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on KeyCorp with 15 of 22 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like KeyCorp better than competitor Regions overall. Two out of 18 analysts rate Regions a buy compared to five of 22 for KeyCorp. 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 $1.01 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 10.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.21 per share. Estimates range from $0.18 to $0.24.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see KeyCorp as a good bet, with 64.4% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 70.1% give it an outperform rating. Fools are bullish on KeyCorp and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 232 posts in the past 30 days. KeyCorp's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls 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

20.3%

21.6%

23.9%

16.5%

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