Gibraltar Industries Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Gibraltar Industries' (Nasdaq: ROCK  ) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Nov. 2. Gibraltar Industries is a manufacturer, processor, and distributor of residential and commercial building products and processed metal products for the construction, industrial, and automotive markets.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Gibraltar Industries with three of four analysts rating it hold. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $203.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.24 per share. Estimates range from $0.21 to $0.25.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 79.4% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 77.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Gibraltar Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 44 posts in the past 30 days. Gibraltar Industries' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars somewhat falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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	21.8%	18.4%	12.1%	17.2%
Operating Margin	8.3%	4.4%	(57.1%)	3.0%
Net Margin	3.7%	5.1%	(48.5%)	0.7%

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