Investors never know what to expect for Astoria (NYSE: AF), as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Astoria Financial is a unitary savings and loan association holding company for Astoria Federal Savings and Loan Association that provides various banking services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Astoria with seven of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Astoria better than competitor Northfield Bancorp overall. Zero out of two analysts rate Northfield Bancorp a buy compared to two of 13 for Astoria.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $88.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 12.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.14 per share. Estimates range from $0.11 to $0.16.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see AF as a good bet, with 57.9% awarding it an outperform rating. The community is split on the stock with 50% Fools giving it an outperform rating and 50% an underperform rating. Fools are bullish on Astoria, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 29 posts in the past 30 days. Astoria's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Astoria's profit has risen year over year by an average of 66.3% over the past five quarters. 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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Net Margin

6.1%

8.6%

13.4%

11.0%

For all our Astoria-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Astoria to My Watchlist.

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..

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.