Methode Electronics (NYSE: MEI) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Methode Electronics designs, manufactures, and markets devices employing electrical, radio remote control, electronic, wireless, sensing, and optical technologies.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained unchanged in their opinion of the stock.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $110.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.2% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.10 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 96.5% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 93.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Methode Electronics, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 62 posts in the past 30 days. Methode Electronics has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
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.

Quarter

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

21.7%

19.0%

21.9%

19.6%

Operating Margin

4.8%

3.9%

2.2%

3.9%

Net Margin

8.4%

5.8%

(0.5%)

4.1%

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