TETRA Technologies Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for TETRA Technologies (NYSE: TTI  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings Friday. Tetra Technologies is focused on completion fluids and other products, production testing, and selected offshore services including well plugging and abandonment, decommissioning, and diving.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back TETRA Technologies as a buy. But with 62.5% of analysts rating it a buy, TETRA Technologies is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 73.7% buys. Analysts don't like TETRA Technologies as much as competitor Basic Energy Services overall. Nine out of 14 analysts rate Basic Energy Services a buy compared with five of eight for TETRA Technologies. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $244.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.3% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.21 per share. Estimates range from $0.14 to $0.27.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 99.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 97.5% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on TETRA Technologies, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 91 posts in the past 30 days. TETRA Technologies has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 5.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 8.1% while cost of sales rose 14.9% to $196.2 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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