CDI (NYSE: CDI) came in right in line with the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors are hoping it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings yesterday. CDI provides engineering and information technology outsourcing solutions and professional staffing.

What analysts say

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on CDI with analysts unanimously rating it hold. Analysts don't like CDI as much as competitor Barrett Business Services overall. Two out of two analysts rate Barrett Business Services a buy compared to zero of three for CDI. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $259.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 18.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.13 per share. Estimates range from $0.08 to $0.16.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 100% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 92.5% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced CDI, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 39 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of CDI, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management
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

21.2%

21.1%

22.2%

20.4%

Operating Margin

1.1%

(3.8%)

2.0%

1.6%

Net Margin

0.3%

(6.0%)

0.7%

1.2%

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