After beating estimates last quarter by 11 cents, NetGear (Nasdaq: NTGR) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Netgear designs, develops and markets networking products for home users and for small business.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold? Analysts strongly back NetGear, with six of seven rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like NetGear better than competitor Arris Group overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $277.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 41.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 53 cents per share. Estimates range from 52 cents to 54 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.9% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars with 96.9% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on NetGear and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 631 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, NetGear's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
NetGear's income has fallen year over year by an average of 59.4%. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 31.8% while cost of sales rose 37.7% to $191 million from a year earlier.

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

31.5%

31.4%

32.1%

35.5%

Operating Margin

11%

9.7%

9.2%

10.6%

Net Margin

7.6%

5.3%

5.5%

5.3%

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