Brooks Automation
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% |
