Omnicell Earnings Preview

After beating estimates last quarter by $0.02, Omnicell (Nasdaq: OMCL  ) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Oct. 27. Omnicell develops, markets, sells, and supports medication and supply dispensing systems principally to the healthcare industry.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like Omnicell better than competitor MedAssets overall. Out of 22 analysts, 11 rate MedAssets a buy compared to seven of seven for Omnicell. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $62.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.08 per share. Estimates range from $0.07 to $0.09.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 92.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 94.7% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Omnicell, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 68 posts in the past 30 days. Omnicell has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Omnicell's profit has risen year over year by an average of 17.6% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company raised its gross margin by 2.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 11.5% while cost of sales rose 5.3% to $27.2 million from a year earlier.

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	55.4%	55.4%	54.8%	53.5%
Operating Margin	6.9%	1.8%	2.7%	5.3%
Net Margin	4.2%	1.2%	1.2%	2.3%

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

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.