AptarGroup Earnings Preview

AptarGroup (NYSE: ATR  ) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. AptarGroup is a global supplier of a range of innovative dispensing systems for the personal care, fragrance/cosmetic, pharmaceutical, household and food/beverage markets.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts think investors should stand pat on AptarGroup with four of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts like AptarGroup better than competitor Bemis Company overall. Four out of 10 analysts rate Bemis Company a buy compared to three of seven for AptarGroup. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $568.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 75 cents per share. Estimates range from 74 cents to 77 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 97% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars with 94.3% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced AptarGroup, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 35 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of AptarGroup, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
AptarGroup's profit has risen year over year by an average of 32.9%. 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	33.6%	32.2%	33.8%	34%
Operating Margin	12.1%	11.5%	13.7%	14.2%
Net Margin	7.7%	7.7%	9.1%	8.9%

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