John Bean Technologies Earnings Preview

John Bean Technologies (NYSE: JBT  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, August 2. John Bean Technologies Corp is a global technology solutions provider for the food processing and air transportation industries. It designs, manufactures, tests and services technologically sophisticated systems and products for customers.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like John Bean Technologies better than competitor Key Technology overall. Two out of three analysts rate Key Technology a buy compared to four of four for John Bean Technologies. Analysts' rating of John Bean Technologies has stayed constant from three months prior.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $230.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 10.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.35 per share. Estimates range from $0.30 to $0.39.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 100% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 100% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about John Bean Technologies, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 24 posts in the past 30 days. John Bean Technologies has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
John Bean Technologies' profit has risen year over year by an average of 16.7%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.3 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 19.2% while cost of sales rose 23.1% to $150.3 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. 

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