StanCorp Financial Group (NYSE: SFG) 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 Monday, Jan. 30. StanCorp Financial Group is a holding company and conducts business through wholly-owned operating subsidiaries throughout the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on StanCorp Financial Group with five of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like StanCorp Financial Group as much as competitor Conseco overall. One out of four analysts rate Conseco a buy compared to one of eight for StanCorp Financial Group.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $710.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 0.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.79 per share. Estimates range from $0.69 to $0.90.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 90.5% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The greater community agrees with the All-Stars, as 75.8% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on StanCorp Financial Group, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 29 posts in the past 30 days. StanCorp Financial Group's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
StanCorp Financial Group's income has fallen year-over-year by an average of 24.2% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. StanCorp Financial Group has seen decreasing net margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. Here is how StanCorp Financial Group has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Net Margin

6.6%

2.7%

4.7%

7.3%

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