Hi-Tech Pharmacal (Nasdaq: HITK) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, September 6. Hi-Tech Pharmacal is a specialty manufacturer and marketer of prescription, over-the-counter and nutritional products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with two analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts like Hi-Tech Pharmacal better than competitor Par Pharmaceutical Companies overall. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Hi-Tech Pharmacal for the past three months.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $54.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 33.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of 84 cents per share. Estimates range from 77 cents to 92 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 94.5% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 94.1% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Hi-Tech Pharmacal, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 62 posts in the past 30 days. Hi-Tech Pharmacal has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Hi-Tech Pharmacal's profit has risen year over year by an average of 37% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company increased its gross margin by 4.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 37% while cost of sales rose 24.2% to $24.4 million from a year earlier.

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

56%

56.5%

55.7%

57.4%

Operating Margin

37%

31.2%

33.9%

32.3%

Net Margin

22.8%

20.3%

22.2%

21.5%

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