Cohu Earnings Preview

Watch Cohu's (Nasdaq: COHU  ) earnings report to see whether it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 20. Cohu's main business activity involves the development, manufacture, marketing, sale, and servicing of test handling and burn-in related equipment and thermal subsystems for the global semiconductor industry.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like Cohu better than competitor Brooks Automation overall. Two out of seven analysts rate Brooks Automation a buy, compared with two of two for Cohu. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Cohu for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $80 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 $0.21 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 90% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 87.7% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Cohu, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 15 posts in the past 30 days. Cohu's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
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	32.1%	33.5%	34.9%	36.6%
Operating Margin	8.5%	10.8%	10.2%	11.9%
Net Margin	7.3%	9.7%	8.8%	8.9%

For all our Cohu-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Cohu to My Watchlist.

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools don't all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.