Liz Claiborne (NYSE: LIZ) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Nov. 9. Liz Claiborne and its wholly owned and majority-owned subsidiaries are engaged mainly in the design and marketing of a global portfolio of retail-based premium brands including Juicy Couture, kate spade, Lucky Brand, and MEXX.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Liz Claiborne while the remaining half are split between buy and sell. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Liz Claiborne for the past three months.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $580.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 11.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.04 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.15 to a profit of $0.19.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see Liz Claiborne as a good bet, with 71.4% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars, as 72.2% give it an outperform rating. Fools are keen on Liz Claiborne and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 148 posts in the past 30 days. Liz Claiborne's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

51.9%

52.4%

50.6%

51.3%

Operating Margin

(12.8%)

(9.8%)

(1.3%)

(3%)

Net Margin

(16.2%)

(18.8%)

(4.5%)

(9.5%)

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