Super Micro Computer (Nasdaq: SMCI) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will surpass expectations this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, August 2. Super Micro Computerdevelops and provides high performance server solutions based upon an innovative, modular and open-standard architecture.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Super Micro Computer, with three of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Super Micro Computer as much as competitor SGI overall.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $251.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 24.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.25 per share. Estimates range from $0.23 to $0.27.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 96.9% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 93.8% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Super Micro Computer, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 76 posts in the past 30 days. Super Micro Computer has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Super Micro Computer'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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

16.2%

16.7%

15.9%

15.3%

Operating Margin

6.5%

7%

5.8%

5.6%

Net Margin

4.6%

4.8%

3.5%

3.8%

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