American States Water (NYSE: AWR) 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, March 12. American States Water is a holding company for Golden State Water, Chaparral City Water, and American States Utility Services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on American States Water with four of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts like American States Water better than competitor California Water Service Group overall. Three out of eight analysts rate California Water Service Group a buy compared to three of seven for American States Water. Analysts' rating of American States Water has stayed constant from three months prior.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $104.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 0.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.38 per share. Estimates range from $0.29 to $0.47.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 97% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 94.6% granting it a rating of "outperform." American States Water has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
American States Water's profit has risen year over year by an average of 92.2% 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 illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. American States Water's net margins, which reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit, have increased for the last two quarters year over year. See how American States Water has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

64.1%

54.9%

65.6%

64.6%

Net Margin

13.0%

14.5%

8.0%

8.8%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.