Southern Union Company Earnings Preview

Southern Union Company (NYSE: SUG  ) will look to avoid missing estimates this quarter when its earnings are released. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, August 1. Southern Union Company is engaged in the gathering, processing, transportation, storage, and distribution of natural gas in the United States. It operates in three reportable segments: transportation and storage, gathering and processing, and distribution.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Southern Union Company as a buy. But with 57.1% of analysts rating it a buy, Southern Union Company is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 59.3% buys. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $530 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 7.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.40 per share. Estimates range from $0.36 to $0.45.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 90.2% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars, with 93.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Southern Union Company, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 48 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Southern Union Company, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Southern Union Company's profit has risen year over year by an average of 29.3%. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

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 and net margins over the past four quarters:

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	26.8%	30.7%	30.2%	35.4%
Net Margin	8.1%	8.3%	7.7%	13.1%

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