After beating estimates last quarter by $0.09, Vitamin Shoppe (NYSE: VSI) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings tomorrow. Vitamin Shoppe is a retailer and direct marketer of vitamins, minerals, herbs, supplements, sports nutrition, and other health and wellness products.

What analysts say

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Vitamin Shoppe, with seven of eight rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Vitamin Shoppe better than competitor Rite Aid 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 $211.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 10% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.38 per share. Estimates range from $0.35 to $0.39.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 76.9% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 84.2% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Vitamin Shoppe, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only nine posts in the past 30 days. Vitamin Shoppe's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management
Vitamin Shoppe's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold.

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

34.7%

33.1%

32.6%

33.1%

Operating Margin

9.6%

6.8%

7.4%

8.0%

Net Margin

5.3%

3.3%

3.9%

3.8%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Vitamin Shoppe movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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