Neenah Paper Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edges of their seats, hoping that Neenah Paper (NYSE: NP  ) will top analyst expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Nov. 8. Neenah Paper is an international producer of papers and technical products.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like Neenah Paper better than competitor Wausau Paper overall. One out of four analysts rate Wausau Paper a buy compared to two of two for Neenah Paper.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $175 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.35 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 93% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 87.6% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Neenah Paper, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 58 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Neenah Paper, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Neenah Paper's income has fallen year over year by an average of 1.1% 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	18.3%	19.2%	17.3%	17.2%
Operating Margin	8.6%	8.6%	8.3%	7.2%
Net Margin	4.3%	4.0%	4.2%	2.5%

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

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