Church & Dwight (NYSE: CHD) met its estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Church & Dwight develops, manufactures, and markets a broad range of household, personal care, and specialty products. The company focuses its marketing efforts mainly on its eight "power" brands.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Church & Dwight as eight analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts like Church & Dwight better than competitor Clorox overall. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $669.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 4.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.56 per share. Estimates range from $0.55 to $0.57.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 97.3% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 95.3% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Church & Dwight and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 131 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Church & Dwight's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Church & Dwight's profit has risen year over year by an average of 5.1%.

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

44.9%

44.5%

44.0%

45.4%

Operating Margin

20.4%

12.2%

17.2%

18.7%

Net Margin

13.0%

7.2%

10.6%

11.6%

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