Clean Harbors Earnings Preview

Clean Harbors (NYSE: CLH  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Wednesday. Clean Harbors, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of environmental services and solutions to a customer base in the United States, Canada, Puerto Rico, and Mexico.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Clean Harbors, with six of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Clean Harbors better than competitor US Ecology 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 $489.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 0.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.51 per share. Estimates range from $0.44 to $0.57.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 95.7% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 94.5% giving it a rating of "outperform." Even with a robust four out of five stars, Clean Harbors' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Clean Harbors' profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

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	31.2%	28.1%	30.3%	31.2%
Operating Margin	11.6%	9.1%	10.3%	15.0%
Net Margin	6.5%	5.2%	5.6%	8.0%

For all our Clean Harbors-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Clean Harbors to My Watchlist.

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