Cypress Semiconductor Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Cypress Semiconductor (Nasdaq: CY  ) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Cypress Semiconductor designs, develops, manufactures, and markets high-performance, mixed-signal, programmable solutions that provide customers with rapid time-to-market and system value.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 11 analysts rating it as a buy and only two rating it as a sell. Analysts like Cypress Semiconductor better than competitor ON Semiconductor 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 $266 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 14.7% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.20 per share. Estimates range from $0.18 to $0.22.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 97.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 97% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Cypress Semiconductor and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 296 posts in the past 30 days. Cypress Semiconductor has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Cypress Semiconductor's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold 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	54.5%	55.2%	55.9%	58.1%
Operating Margin	10.5%	23.6%	7.2%	13.2%
Net Margin	15.9%	23.7%	4.3%	14.8%

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

Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Cypress Semiconductor. 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.