Bottomline Technologies Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Bottomline Technologies (Nasdaq: EPAY  ) will top analyst expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Bottomline Technologies provides electronic payment, invoice, and document automation solutions to financial institutions and banks. Its processes and transactions involve global payments, invoice receipt and approval, collections, and reporting.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Bottomline Technologies, with five of nine rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $52.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 25.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.17 per share. Estimates range from $0.15 to $0.19.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 81.3% granting it an "outperform" rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 71.7% give it an "outperform" rating. Fools have embraced Bottomline Technologies, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 21 posts in the past 30 days. Bottomline Technologies' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Bottomline Technologies' company's gross margin shrank by 2.4 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 30.7% while cost of sales rose 37.7% to $25.4 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.

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