IDEXX Laboratories Earnings Preview

Watch IDEXX Laboratories' (Nasdaq: IDXX  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, Oct. 21. IDEXX develops, manufactures, and distributes products and provides services mainly for the veterinary, water testing, and dairy markets.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on IDEXX with seven of 11 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like IDEXX much as competitor Henry Schein overall. Seven out of 13 analysts rate Henry Schein a buy compared to four of 11 for IDEXX. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $294.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.64 per share. Estimates range from $0.63 to $0.66.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 98.5% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 95.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on IDEXX, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 70 posts in the past 30 days. IDEXX has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
IDEXX Laboratories' profit has risen year over year by an average of 17.3% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now 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	54.8%	52.9%	51.0%	52.7%
Operating Margin	22.4%	18.3%	17.9%	18.5%
Net Margin	15.3%	12.5%	12.8%	12.9%

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