Bes Stocks To Buy 2014, Best Stocks For 2014: Swift Energy Earnings Preview

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Swift Energy Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Swift Energy (NYSE: SFY ) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 23. Swift Energy is engaged in developing, exploring, acquiring, and operating oil and natural gas properties, with a focus on oil and natural gas reserves onshore and in the inland waters of Louisiana and Texas.

What analysts say:

Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Swift Energy, with 12 of 14 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Swift Energy better than competitor Carrizo Oil & Gas overall. 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 $141.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.7% from the year-ago quarter.
Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.35 per share. Estimates range from $0.16 to $0.49.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are strongly supporting the stock, with 90.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 90.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Swift Energy, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Swift Energy's profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 81% 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 are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's net margin has been increasing year over year for the last ! three qu arters. Net margin reflects what percentage of revenue becomes profit. Here is how Swift Energy has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	81.6%	83.0%	82.4%	80.7%
Operating Margin	19.2%	26.6%	22.6%	15.0%
Net Margin	11.9%	26.1%	14.0%	8.9%

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

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

Related Articles: