Investors hope New York Times (NYSE: NYT) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.02 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. The New York Times is a media company that currently includes newspapers, Internet businesses, and investments in paper mills.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on New York Times with analysts unanimously rating it hold. Analysts don't like New York Times as much as competitor E.W. Scripps overall. Two out of two analysts rate E.W. Scripps a buy compared to zero of five for New York Times. Analysts' rating of New York Times has stayed constant from three months prior.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $540.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 2.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.03 per share.

What our community says:
Most CAPS All-Stars are skeptical of New York Times' prospects, with 65.5% awarding it an underperform rating. Like the All-Stars, the community is also not a fan of New York Times with 60.2% granting it underperform rating. Fools are bearish on New York Times and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 297 posts in the past 30 days. New York Times' bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three 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

58.9%

57.0%

62.7%

57.2%

Operating Margin

(19.8%)

5.5%

13.5%

5.7%

Net Margin

(20.8%)

1.0%

10.1%

(0.8%)

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