Provident Financial Services Earnings Preview

Provident Financial Services (NYS: PFS) is looking to meet the Street's expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, Jan. 27. Provident Financial Services, through its subsidiary bank, provides a range of banking services to individual and business customers through branch offices in New Jersey.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Provident Financial Services, with six of eight rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Provident Financial Services as much as competitor Kearny overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.

• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $54.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.3% from the year-ago quarter.

• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.27 per share. Estimates range from $0.26 to $0.28.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are split on PFS, with 50% rating it an "outperform" and 50% giving it an "underperform" rating. Fools are of two minds on the stock, as 51.6% of the community is assigning it an "outperform" rating and 48.4% an "underperform" rating. The message boards have been quiet lately with only 15 posts in the past 30 days. Provident Financial Services has a CAPS rating of zero out of five stars.

Management:
Provident Financial Services' profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 29.5% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's net margins have been increasing year-over-year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of revenue becomes profit. Here is how Provident Financial Services has been doing for the last four quarters:

For all our Provident Financial Services-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Provident Financial Services to My Watchlist.

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