Ametek Earnings Preview

Ametek (NYSE: AME  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. Ametek is a global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with operations in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.

What analysts say

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Ametek, with seven of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Ametek as much as competitor Roper Industries overall. Analysts' rating of Ametek has stayed constant from three months prior.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $729.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.3% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.55 per share. Estimates range from $0.54 to $0.56.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.6% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 94.6% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Ametek, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 52 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Ametek, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Ametek's profit has risen year over year by an average of 55.6%.

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	34.1%	34.1%	33.4%	33.2%
Operating Margin	21.2%	20.0%	20.0%	19.5%
Net Margin	12.6%	12.0%	12.0%	11.4%

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