Natus Medical Earnings Preview

Investors hope Natus Medical (Nasdaq: BABY  ) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by one cent in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, July 28. Natus Medical is a provider of healthcare products used for the screening, detection, treatment, monitoring and tracking of common medical ailments in newborn care, hearing impairment, neurological dysfunction, epilepsy and sleep disorders.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Natus Medical, with seven of nine rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Natus Medical better than competitor CONMED overall. Analysts still rate the stock a Moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $57.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate calls for earnings of $0.14 per share. Estimates range from $0.12 to $0.18 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 98.2% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars, with 97.5% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Natus Medical and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 317 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Natus Medical's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:

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	58.8%	59.5%	59%	59.1%
Operating Margin	8.5%	12.1%	11%	8.6%
Net Margin	5.3%	8.5%	7%	5.9%

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