Thomas & Betts Earnings Preview

Thomas & Betts (NYSE: TNB  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Thomas & Betts designs and manufactures electrical components used in industrial, commercial, communications, and utility markets. The company also produces commercial heating units and highly engineered steel structures used for utility transmission.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Thomas & Betts, with eight of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Thomas & Betts better than competitor Molex overall. Thomas & Betts' rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $584.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.7% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.92 per share. Estimates range from $0.89 to $0.96.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 98.7% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 96.8% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Thomas & Betts, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 65 posts in the past 30 days. Thomas & Betts has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Thomas & Betts' profit has risen year over year by an average of 35.4% over the past five quarters. The company's revenue has now risen for two 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	30.0%	31.3%	30.3%	31.8%
Operating Margin	12.5%	11.4%	9.3%	13.3%
Net Margin	7.7%	6.8%	8.2%	8.3%

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