First Midwest Bancorp Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of First Midwest Bancorp's (Nasdaq: FMBI) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Oct. 26. First Midwest Bancorp is engaged in commercial and retail banking and offers financial products and services and other related financial services to individual, business, institutional, and governmental customers.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on First Midwest Bancorp while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts like First Midwest Bancorp better than competitor PrivateBancorp overall. Four out of 14 analysts rate PrivateBancorp a buy compared to five out of 10 for First Midwest Bancorp. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $99.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.12 per share. Estimates range from $0.10 to $0.15.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see FMBI as a good bet, with 62.1% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 67.1% give it an outperform rating. Fools are gung-ho about First Midwest Bancorp, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 44 posts in the past 30 days. First Midwest Bancorp's bearish CAPS rating of one 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.

We can help you keep tabs on your companies with My Watchlist, our free, personalized service. Add First Midwest Bancorp now.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.