Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that HSN (Nasdaq: HSNI) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 23. HSN is an interactive multi-channel retailer offering retail experiences on TV, online, in catalogs, and in retail and outlet stores.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back HSN, with four out of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $963.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.82 per share. Estimates range from $0.80 to $0.84.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 90.6% giving it an outperform rating. The majority of Fools (59.6%) agree with the All-Stars and award it an outperform rating. HSN's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
HSN's profit has risen year over year by an average of 28.1% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. HSN's net margins have increased year over year for the last three quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of revenue becomes profit. See how HSN has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

36.3%

38.4%

35.1%

34.5%

Operating Margin

6.3%

8%

5.7%

8.5%

Net Margin

3.2%

4.3%

2.8%

4.5%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.