Great Plains Energy Earnings Preview

Great Plains Energy (NYSE: GXP  ) 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, Feb. 27. Great Plains Energy is a public utility holding company that operates through its four direct subsidiaries: Kansas City Power & Light Company, KLT, Innovative Energy Consultants, and Great Plains Energy Services.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Great Plains Energy with five of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Great Plains Energy as much as competitor Westar Energy overall. Five out of 10 analysts rate Westar Energy a buy compared to three of eight for Great Plains Energy. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $476.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.8% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.02 per share. Estimates range from breaking even to a profit of $0.03.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 91.7% giving it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community agrees with the All-Stars, with 88.8% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Great Plains Energy, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Great Plai! ns Energ y's net margin, which reflects what percentage of revenue becomes profit, has been dropping year over year for the last four quarters. See how Great Plains Energy has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	49.2%	40.1%	33.5%	32.2%
Net Margin	16.4%	7.7%	0.5%	(1.0%)

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.