Carpenter Technology Earnings Preview

If Carpenter Technology (NYSE: CRS  ) misses estimates again it will be the consecutive quarter for the company. The company will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow. Carpenter Technology is engaged in the manufacturing, fabrication, and distribution of specialty metals. It is organized in two reportable business segments: advanced metals operations and premium alloys operations.

What analysts say

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts generally think investors should hang on to Carpenter Technology, with half rating the stock a hold. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $440.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.51 per share. Estimates range from $0.45 to $0.57.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.5% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 94.1% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Carpenter Technology and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 130 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Carpenter Technology's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management
Carpenter Technology's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than threefold. The company boosted its gross margin by two percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 37.8% while cost of sales rose 34.6% to $391.1 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	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	15.7%	13.1%	14.2%	12.0%
Operating Margin	7.6%	3.2%	4.0%	2.8%
Net Margin	6.2%	2.5%	2.2%	1.6%

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