Watch Polaris Industries' (NYSE: PII) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Oct. 18. Polaris Industries designs, engineers, and manufactures off-road vehicles, including all-terrain vehicles, side-by-side vehicles for recreational and utility use, snowmobiles, and motorcycles.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Polaris Industries, with nine of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Polaris Industries better than competitor Brunswick overall. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $693.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 19.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.85 per share. Estimates range from $0.80 to $0.91.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 89.4% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 86.4% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Polaris Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 96 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Polaris Industries, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Polaris Industries' profit has risen year over year by an average of 76.3% over the past five quarters. The company upped its gross margin by three percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 41.1% while cost of sales rose 35.4% to $430.3 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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

29.2%

28.3%

27.7%

26.0%

Operating Margin

12.7%

13.0%

12.6%

11.7%

Net Margin

8.0%

8.8%

8.8%

8.1%

For all our Polaris Industries-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Polaris Industries to My Watchlist.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.