NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of Bob Evans Farms (BOBE) are higher by 0.1% to $59.54 in afternoon trading Tuesday, ahead of the full-service restaurant company's third quarter earnings release after the closing bell later today.

Analysts are expecting the company to post earnings of 70 cents for the third quarter, up from the 30 cents it reported in the prior year.

Revenue is expected by Wall Street analysts to come in at $359.33 million, also higher compared to the year ago sales of $349.13 million the company reported.

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Last week, Bob Evans announced a quarterly cash dividend of 31 cents per share on the company's outstanding common stock. The dividend is payable on March 23 to stockholders of record at the close of March 9, 2015.

New Albany, OH-based Bob Evans Farms owns and operates full-service restaurants under the Bob Evans Restaurants brand name. It operates 562 family restaurants in 19 states in the U.S.

Through its BEF Foods segment, the company is also a producer and distributor of refrigerated side dishes, pork sausage and a variety of refrigerated and frozen convenience food products.

Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates BOB EVANS FARMS as a Buy with a ratings score of B. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate BOB EVANS FARMS (BOBE) a BUY. This is driven by several positive factors, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, increase in stock price during the past year and growth in earnings per share. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• BOBE's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 7.7%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 0.2%. This growth in revenue appears to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, improving the earnings per share.
• The stock has risen over the past year as investors have generally rewarded the company for its earnings growth and other positive factors like the ones we have cited in this report. The stock's price rise over the last year has driven it to a level which is somewhat expensive compared to the rest of its industry. We feel, however, that other strengths this company displays justify these higher price levels.
• BOB EVANS FARMS has improved earnings per share by 8.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. This company has reported somewhat volatile earnings recently. But, we feel it is poised for EPS growth in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, BOB EVANS FARMS reported lower earnings of $1.18 versus $2.92 in the prior year. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($1.96 versus $1.18).
• The change in net income from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income has decreased by 1.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $6.12 million to $6.04 million.
• Even though the current debt-to-equity ratio is 1.25, it is still below the industry average, suggesting that this level of debt is acceptable within the Hotels, Restaurants & Leisure industry. Even though the debt-to-equity ratio shows mixed results, the company's quick ratio of 0.43 is very low and demonstrates very weak liquidity.
• You can view the full analysis from the report here: BOBE Ratings Report