First BanCorp Earnings Preview

First BanCorp (NYSE: FBP) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, Oct. 21. First BanCorp is a bank holding company for FirstBank Puerto Rico, which provides a range of financial services for retail, commercial, and institutional clients.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on First BanCorp with two of three analysts rating it hold. Analysts like First BanCorp better than competitor Heritage Financial Group overall. Zero out of one analysts rate Heritage Financial Group a buy compared to one of three for First BanCorp. 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 $88.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 26.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $2.08 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $2.46 to a loss of $1.69.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see First BanCorp as a good bet, with 73.9% giving it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 80% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools have embraced First BanCorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 82 posts in the past 30 days. First BanCorp'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.

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