Ensign Group Earnings Preview

Watch Ensign Group's (Nasdaq: ENSG  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Feb. 15. The Ensign Group, through its subsidiaries, provides skilled nursing and rehabilitative care services through the operation of 79 facilities located in California, Arizona, Texas, Washington, Utah, Colorado, and Idaho.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Ensign Group, with four out of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Ensign Group as much as competitor Sunrise Senior Living overall. Ensign Group's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $202.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 17.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.47 per share. Estimates range from $0.43 to $0.57.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly supporting the stock, with 97.5% assigning it an outperform rating. The greater community agrees with the All-Stars, as 96.4% give it a rating of outperform. Fools are impressed with Ensign Group and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 115 posts in the past 30 days. Ensign Group has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Ensign Group's profit has risen year over year by an average of 30.7% over the past five quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Ensign Group's gross margins, which reflect the total sales revenu! e retain ed after costs, have been rising year over year for the last four quarters. Here are Ensign Group's reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	19%	20%	19.8%	19%
Operating Margin	12.2%	12.9%	13%	12.3%
Net Margin	5.9%	7%	7%	6.8%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

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