Lincare Holdings Earnings Preview

Lincare Holdings (Nasdaq: LNCR  ) is looking to meet the Street's expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Lincare Holdings together with its subsidiaries is a provider of oxygen and other respiratory therapy services to patients.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts think investors should stand pat on Lincare Holdings with five of nine analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Lincare Holdings better than competitor Owens & Minor overall. One out of 10 analysts rate Owens & Minor a buy compared to four of nine for Lincare Holdings. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $447.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 51 cents per share. Estimates range from 50 cents to 52 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 89.2% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 83.5% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Lincare Holdings, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 51 posts in the past 30 days. Lincare Holdings' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Lincare Holdings' profit has risen year over year by an average of 21.1%. 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	71.2%	49.1%	48.5%	72.8%
Operating Margin	19.6%	20%	20%	20.4%
Net Margin	10.7%	10.9%	10.9%	11.1%

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