Hancock Holding Co. Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Hancock Holding's (Nasdaq: HBHC) 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 Monday. Hancock Holding is a financial holding company operates through wholly owned subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Hancock Holding, with nine of 15 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Hancock Holding better than competitor Cullen/Frost Bankers overall. 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 $243.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 132% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.53 per share. Estimates range from $0.48 to $0.60.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see HBHC as a good bet, with 58.3% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 60.7% give it an outperform rating. Fools are bullish on Hancock Holding, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 16 posts in the past 30 days. Hancock Holding's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Hancock Holding's profit has risen year over year by an average of 12% over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue increase last quarter snaps a streak of two consecutive quarters of revenue declines. Revenue rose 29.7% in the second quarter and fell 5.7% in the first quarter and 17.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year.

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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