After beating estimates last quarter by $0.11, Cash America International (NYSE: CSH) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Cash America International provides individuals with pawn loans, short-term cash advances, check-cashing services, and other specialty financial services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Cash America International, with eight of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Cash America International better than competitor First Cash Financial Services overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $362.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 13.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.08 per share. Estimates range from $1.07 to $1.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.5% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 92.2% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Cash America International, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 72 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Cash America International, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Cash America International's profit has risen year over year by an average of 17.5% over the past five quarters. The company's revenue has now risen for two straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 13.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 14.4% while cost of sales rose 76.7% to $124.4 million from a year earlier.

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 gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

62.8%

60.8%

71.6%

76.9%

Operating Margin

14.9%

17.8%

16.6%

15.8%

Net Margin

8.1%

10.2%

9.4%

8.7%

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