If Blue Coat Systems (Nasdaq: BCSI) misses estimates again it will be the third consecutive quarter for the company. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, August 18. Blue Coat Systems designs, develops and sells products and services that secure and optimize the delivery of business applications and other information to distributed users over a Wide Area Network or the public Internet.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Blue Coat Systems with 12 of 15 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Blue Coat Systems as much as competitor Radware overall. Three out of four analysts rate Radware a buy compared to two of 15 for Blue Coat Systems. While analysts still rate the stock a Hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $113.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 7.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 15 cents per share. Estimates range from 14 cents to 17 cents.

What our community says:
 CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 94.4% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars with 92.5% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Blue Coat Systems and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 140 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Blue Coat Systems, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
 Blue Coat Systems' profit has risen year over year by an average of 76.3% over the past five quarters. 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

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

77.8%

77.8%

78.5%

78.5%

Operating Margin

12%

12.5%

13.8%

15.8%

Net Margin

7.5%

9.8%

9.9%

11.4%

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