Wabtec Earnings Preview

Watch Wabtec's (NYSE: WAB  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 26. Wabtec is a provider of value-added, technology-based products and services for the global rail industry. It primarily serves the worldwide freight rail and passenger transit industries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Wabtec with five of nine analysts rating it hold. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steady in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $447.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 19.7% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.84 cents per share. Estimates range from $0.80 to $0.89.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 99.2% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 97.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Wabtec and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 108 posts in the past 30 days. Wabtec has a CAPS rating of five out of five stars, echoing the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Wabtec's profit has risen year over year by an average of 18.9%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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	29.3%	30%	29.1%	30.3%
Operating Margin	14.6%	13.1%	13.5%	13.3%
Net Margin	9.0%	7.9%	8.1%	8.3%

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