NCI Building Systems Earnings Preview

NCI Building Systems (NYSE: NCS  ) beat estimates by $0.33 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Sept. 7. NCI is an integrated manufacturer and supplier of metal coil coating services, metal building components, and engineered metal buildings systems in North America.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back NCI Building Systems as a buy. But with 66.7% of analysts rating it a buy, NCI Building Systems is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest eight competitors, which average 78.6% as buys. Analysts like NCI Building Systems better than competitor Headwaters overall. Two out of four analysts rate Headwaters a buy compared to two of three for NCI Building Systems. NCI Building Systems' rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $258.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.46 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.78 to a loss of $0.27.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 92.3% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 90.8% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced NCI Building Systems, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 72 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, NCI Building Systems' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two straight quarters. The company raised its gross margin by 2.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 11.5% while cost of sales rose 7.5% to $174.8 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:

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

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