Pool Corp. Earnings Preview

Investors hope Pool Corp. (Nasdaq: POOL  ) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.04 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Pool Corp. sells swimming pool equipment, parts, supplies, and irrigation and landscape products to pool builders, retail stores, service companies, landscape contractors, and golf courses.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Pool with seven of 10 analysts rating it hold. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steadfast in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $481.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.48 per share. Estimates range from $0.46 to $0.50.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see Pool Corp. as a good bet, with 69.4% giving it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 68.1% give it an outperform rating. Fools are gung-ho about Pool and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 117 posts in the past 30 days. Pool's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has gone up for three straight 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	29.9%	29.2%	30.5%	28.8%
Operating Margin	13.9%	0.2%	(7.0%)	8.1%
Net Margin	8.3%	(0.2%)	(4.9%)	5.0%

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