ICU Medical Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for ICU Medical (Nasdaq: ICUI  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. The company is engaged in the development, manufacturing and sale of proprietary, disposable medical connection systems for use in vascular therapy applications.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like ICU Medical better than competitor Merit Medical Systems overall. Six out of nine analysts rate Merit Medical Systems a buy compared to five of five for ICU Medical. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of ICU Medical for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $74.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.8% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 56 cents per share. Estimates range from 53 cents to 60 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 89.3% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 81.3% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about ICU Medical, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 23 posts in the past 30 days. The CAPS rating is five out of five stars.

Management:
ICU Medical's profit has risen year over year by an average of 50.1%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	48.4%	49.6%	44.9%	46.7%
Operating Margin	17.1%	21.8%	19.3%	17.1%
Net Margin	11.3%	13.2%	11.9%	11.2%

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

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