Now that Christmas is out of the way, it's time for that other "most wonderful time ... of the year" -- year-end earnings season, when those companies whose fiscal years align sensibly with the calendar version report their fourth-quarter and full-year results. Next up is Manpower (NYSE:MAN), which reports bright and early Tuesday morning.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? Of the 15 analysts following the company, five think you should buy the stock, eight say hold, and the last two want you to sell.
  • Revenues. Wall Street is looking for 12% sales growth tomorrow, to $4.64 billion.
  • Earnings. Profits are predicted to rise 17% to $1.18 per share.

What management says:
If actions speak louder than words, then what do you think Manpower was saying when in November, its board authorized the repurchase of up to 5 million shares of its own stock? (That's a rhetorical question.) With fewer than 85 million shares outstanding currently, maxing out the buyback would reduce shares outstanding by nearly 6%. In a further demonstration of its confidence, and another move to return capital to shareholders, Manpower upped its semiannual dividend by 19% to $0.32 per share.

What management does:
Why all the confidence? Well, gross margins have been holding steady for the last three quarters. Operating margins began improving six months ago, and the net margin has been marching upward for well over a year now. Combine all of that with year-over-year sales growth that hit 12% last quarter, and Manpower's wallet is overflowing with cash right now.

Margins

6/05

9/05

12/05

3/06

6/06

9/06

Gross

18.5%

18.4%

18.3%

18.4%

18.4%

18.4%

Operating

2.8%

2.8%

2.8%

2.8%

2.9%

3.1%

Net

1.6%

1.5%

1.6%

1.7%

1.8%

1.9%
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ended in the named months.

One Fool says:
Unfortunately, Manpower's wallet isn't the only thing that's overflowing these days. The firm continues to carry more long-term debt than cash on its balance sheet ($760 million to $485 million at last report). And its market cap is filled to the brim as well, up 45% in the last 12 months, and beating the S&P 500 by a good 34 percentage points. Is now really the right time to be spending a lot of cash buying back shares?

Management seems to think so. Arguing that "revenue continues to be stable throughout many of the major geographies," and watching the profitability of that revenue continue to grow, Manpower sees little chance of the good times ending any time soon. Tomorrow, we'll see if management is proved right.

Competitors:

  • Accenture (NYSE:ACN)
  • BearingPoint (NYSE:BE)
  • Kelly (NASDAQ:KELYA)
  • Kforce (NASDAQ:KFRC)
  • Korn/Ferry (NYSE:KFY)
  • Spherion (NYSE:SFN)

Study up on the competition with:

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Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above. The Fool has a disclosure policy.