Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that ScanSource (Nasdaq: SCSC) will top analyst expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, August 18. ScanSource is a wholesale distributor of technology products, providing value-added distribution sales to resellers in the technology markets.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back ScanSource, with four of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $724.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 24.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.65 per share. Estimates range from $0.60 to $0.70.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 100% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars, with 95.5% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on ScanSource, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 32 posts in the past 30 days. ScanSource has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
ScanSource's profit has risen year over year by an average of 44.2% over the past five 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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

10.7%

10.3%

10.0%

9.8%

Operating Margin

4.2%

4.9%

3.9%

3.6%

Net Margin

2.7%

3.2%

2.5%

2.4%

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

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