Post Properties Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Post Properties (NYS: PPS) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Oct. 31. Post Properties is a self-administrated and self-managed equity real estate investment trust that develops, owns, and manages upscale multi-family apartment communities in selected markets in the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Post Properties with nine of 15 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Post Properties as much as competitor Colonial Properties overall. Three out of 10 analysts rate Colonial Properties a buy compared to four of 15 for Post Properties. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.

  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $75.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.6% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.44 per share. Estimates range from $0.42 to $0.48.

What our community says:
Most CAPS All-Stars are skeptical of Post Properties' prospects, with 63.9% granting it an "underperform" rating. Like the All-Stars, the community is also not a fan of Post Properties with 59.6% assigning it "underperform" rating. Fools are skeptical of Post Properties, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 50 posts in the past 30 days. Post Properties' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Net Margin

11.9%

4.1%

6.0%

32.1%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Post Properties movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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