Atlantic Tele-Network Earnings Preview

Atlantic Tele-Network (Nasdaq: ATNI  ) will look to avoid missing estimates when its earnings are released. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, August 2. Atlantic Tele-Network provides wireless and wireline telecommunication services in the Caribbean and North America through its subsidiaries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts generally think investors should hang on to Atlantic Tele-Network, with half rating the stock a hold. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Atlantic Tele-Network for the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $185.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.09 per share. Estimates range from $0.05 to $0.16.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars, with 96.9% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Atlantic Tele-Network, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 60 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Atlantic Tele-Network's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Atlantic Tele-Network's profit has risen year over year by an average of 21.6%. The company's gross margin shrank by 7.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 244.1% while cost of sales rose 321.5% to $73.8 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	60.8%	60.7%	63.5%	64.0%
Operating Margin	5.5%	4.8%	6.7%	4.7%
Net Margin	2.4%	1.7%	3.1%	15.1%

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