Cymer (Nasdaq: CYMI) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Cymer, together with its wholly owned subsidiaries, is engaged in the development, manufacturing, and marketing of excimer light sources to sell to customers that manufacture photolithography tools in the semiconductor equipment industry.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Cymer, with four of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Cymer better than competitor MEMC Electronic Materials 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 $130.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 8.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.36 per share. Estimates range from $0.35 to $0.38.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 94.7% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 87.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Cymer, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 51 posts in the past 30 days. The bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars for Cymer outpaces Fool enthusiasm for the company.

Management:
Cymer's profit has risen year over year by an average of 93.7% 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

53.2%

51.5%

53.1%

48.3%

Operating Margin

23.3%

23.1%

25.3%

21.3%

Net Margin

17.5%

18.7%

22.4%

14.7%

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

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