Tidewater Earnings Preview

After beating estimates last quarter by $0.07, Tidewater (NYSE: TDW  ) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Tidewater provides offshore service vessels and marine support services to the global offshore energy industry through the operation of a diversified fleet of marine service vessels.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Tidewater, with six of eight rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Tidewater better than competitor Bristow Group overall. 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 $253.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.44 per share. Estimates range from $0.30 to $0.58.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.7% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 96.9% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Tidewater and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 242 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Tidewater's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Tidewater's income has fallen year over year by an average of 60% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen for the past three 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	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	39.7%	39.1%	39.9%	36.3%
Operating Margin	11.7%	13.6%	13.9%	8.7%
Net Margin	9.6%	4.7%	12.6%	7.3%

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