Genuine Parts Company Earnings Preview

Watch Genuine Parts Company's (NYSE: GPC  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Tuesday. Genuine Parts Company distributes automotive replacement parts, industrial replacement parts, office products, and electrical/electronic materials.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Genuine Parts Company with four of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Genuine Parts Company as much as competitor LKQ overall. Nine out of 14 analysts rate LKQ a buy compared with two of seven for Genuine Parts Company.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $3.2 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.95 per share. Estimates range from $0.92 to $0.96.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 99.2% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 95.5% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Genuine Parts Company and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 113 posts in the past 30 days. Genuine Parts Company has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Genuine Parts Company's profit has risen year over year by an average of 22.4% over the past five 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	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	28.8%	28.5%	29.1%	28.9%
Operating Margin	7.6%	6.5%	7.5%	7.2%
Net Margin	4.8%	4.3%	4.2%	4.5%

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