Rogers Earnings Preview

Rogers (NYSE: ROG  ) beat estimates by $0.11 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Aug. 1. Rogers manufactures specialty materials, which are sold to targeted markets around the world.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Rogers, with three of four rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Rogers better than competitor Micrel overall. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Rogers for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $139 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 43.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.68 per share. Estimates range from $0.65 to $0.75.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 94.1% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 89.7% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Rogers, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 45 posts in the past 30 days. Rogers' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
Rogers' profit has risen year over year by an average of 3.7%. The company's gross margin shrank by 5.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 62.1% while cost of sales rose 75% to $93.9 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	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	31%	33.2%	36.4%	38.6%
Operating Margin	8.5%	2.7%	11.1%	8%
Net Margin	6.9%	10.8%	8.7%	8.6%

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