Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Pulse Electronics (NYSE: PULS) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Tuesday. Pulse Electronics is a producer of precision-engineered electronic components and modules.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Pulse Electronics while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts don't like Pulse Electronics as much as competitor KEMET overall. Four out of five analysts rate KEMET a buy compared with two of four for Pulse Electronics. Pulse Electronics' rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $92.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 20.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.03 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.04 to a loss of $0.02.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 94.6% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 94.2% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Pulse Electronics, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 63 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Pulse Electronics, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Revenue has fallen in the past two quarters.

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

20.9%

24.8%

27.1%

26.5%

Operating Margin

(11.7%)

4.1%

6.6%

2.1%

Net Margin

(5.0%)

1.2%

11.6%

0.1%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Pulse Electronics movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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