Brooks Automation Earnings Preview

Brooks Automation  (Nasdaq: BRKS  ) met its estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Nov. 10. Brooks Automation is a provider of automation, vacuum, and instrumentation solutions and is a valued business partner to original equipment manufacturers and equipment users throughout the world.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Brooks Automation with three of five analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Brooks Automation better than competitor Cohu overall. Zero out of one analysts rate Cohu a buy compared to two of five for Brooks Automation. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $136.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 24.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.27 per share. Estimates range from $0.26 to $0.28.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 93.1% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 90.2% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Brooks Automation, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 47 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Brooks Automation's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Brooks Automation's income has fallen year over year by an average of more than threefold over the past five 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	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	30.6%	32.0%	32.1%	30.4%
Operating Margin	11.9%	13.9%	13.3%	12.3%
Net Margin	35.6%	13.8%	13.2%	13.3%

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

The Steve Jobs Betrayal
You may already know that in the final year of his life, Jobs revealed a stunning betrayal — and told his biographer, "I will spend my last dying breath... and every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank to right this wrong." What was it that made Jobs so irate — and why could it make a few in-the-know investors some major profits over the coming months and years?

Enter your email address below to find out what made Jobs so enraged!

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.