Omnicell (Nasdaq: OMCL) beat estimates by $0.01 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Omnicell develops, markets, sells and supports medication and supply dispensing systems mainly to the health-care industry.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with seven analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $59.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.06 per share. Estimates range from $0.06 to $0.07.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 91.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 94.2% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Omnicell, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 68 posts in the past 30 days. Omnicell has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Omnicell's profit has risen year over year by an average of 39%. 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

55.4%

54.8%

53.5%

52.8%

Operating Margin

1.8%

2.7%

5.3%

6.4%

Net Margin

1.2%

1.2%

2.3%

3.6%

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