Cytec Industries Earnings Preview

Investors hope Cytec Industries (NYSE: CYT  ) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.09 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, July 21. Cytec Industries is a global specialty chemicals and materials company focused on developing, manufacturing, and selling value-added products.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Cytec Industries, with four of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Cytec Industries better than competitor Westlake Chemical overall. That rating hasn't budged in three months, as analysts have remained steadfast in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $783.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 10.3% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.89 per share. Estimates range from $0.84 to $0.95.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 97.1% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 88.6% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Cytec Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 27 posts in the past 30 days. Cytec Industries' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
Cytec Industries' profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold. Revenue has fallen in the past two 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	23.6%	49.7%	21.4%	23.7%
Operating Margin	8.9%	4.6%	8.1%	11%
Net Margin	10.9%	19.2%	4.5%	7.1%

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