Mueller Industries Earnings Preview

Watch Mueller Industries' (NYSE: MLI  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. Mueller Industries is a manufacturer of copper, brass, plastic, and aluminum products.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts don't like Mueller Industries as much as competitor Alcoa overall. Seven out of 15 analysts rate Alcoa a buy compared to zero of one for Mueller. Industries.Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $614.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 13.7% 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 76 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 100% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 96.5% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Mueller Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 55 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Mueller Industries' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Mueller Industries' income has fallen year over year by an average of 5.6%.

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	14.2%	13.2%	13.7%	13.6%
Operating Margin	9.2%	5.5%	6.1%	5.4%
Net Margin	5.9%	3.4%	3.7%	2.9%

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