Bob Evans Farms Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Bob Evans Farms' (NAS: BOBE) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Bob Evans Farms is a full-service restaurant company that operates two distinct restaurant concepts: Bob Evans Restaurants and Mimi's Cafes.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Bob Evans Farms, with three out of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Bob Evans Farms better than competitor Cracker Barrel Old Country Store overall.

  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $411.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 1.3% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.52 per share. Estimates range from $0.48 to $0.55.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see Bob Evans Farms as a good bet, with 68.8% giving it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 68.2% give it an outperform rating. Fools are keen on Bob Evans Farms, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 59 posts in the past 30 days. Bob Evans Farms' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Bob Evans Farms' income has fallen year over year by an average of 8.3% 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 gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q1

Q4

Q3

Q2

Gross Margin

70.1%

69.3%

68.5%

70.2%

Operating Margin

6.8%

6.6%

5.9%

3.3%

Net Margin

4.4%

4.4%

3.6%

1.9%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

At the time thisarticle was published

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