ABM Industries Earnings Preview

ABM Industries (NYSE: ABM  ) beat estimates by $0.01 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings Monday. AMB is a facility services contractor that provides janitorial, parking, security, and engineering services for commercial, industrial, institutional, and retail facilities primarily throughout the United States.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on ABM Industries while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. 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 $1.1 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 26.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.47 per share. Estimates range from $0.46 to $0.48.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 100% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 91.8% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced ABM Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 52 posts in the past 30 days. ABM Industries' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
ABM Industries' profit has risen year over year by an average of 36.8% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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.

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

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