Matrix Service Company Earnings Preview

Watch Matrix Service Company's (Nasdaq: MTRX  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Sept. 7. Matrix Service Company provides construction and repair and maintenance services primarily to the energy and energy related industries.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Matrix Service Company, with five of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Matrix Service Company better than competitor Willbros Group overall. Analysts' ratings of Matrix Service Company has stayed constant from three months prior.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $175.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 25% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.22 per share. Estimates range from $0.20 to $0.23.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.8% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 95.9% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Matrix Service Company, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 78 posts in the past 30 days. Matrix Service Company 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. The company boosted its gross margin by 2.7 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 11.7% while cost of sales rose 8.3% to $117.8 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	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	13.6%	11.3%	10.3%	2.7%
Operating Margin	5.6%	4.9%	3.4%	(4.8%)
Net Margin	3.6%	3.0%	2.0%	(3%)

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

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