Flowers Foods Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Flowers Foods (NYSE: FLO  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Nov. 10. Flowers Foods is a producer and marketer of packaged bakery foods for retail and food service customers. It consists of two business segments: direct-store-delivery and warehouse delivery.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Flowers Foods with six of 11 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Flowers Foods as much as competitor TreeHouse Foods overall. Five out of 13 analysts rate TreeHouse Foods a buy compared to four of 11 for Flowers Foods. Flowers Foods' rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $672 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.22 per share. Estimates range from $0.21 to $0.24.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.2% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 97.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Flowers Foods and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 118 posts in the past 30 days. Flowers Foods has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
A year-over-year revenue increase last quarter snaps a streak of two consecutive quarters of revenue declines. Revenue rose 0.9% in the first quarter and fell 0.6% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 0.8% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year.

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	48.6%	48.1%	47.1%	47.6%
Operating Margin	7.7%	8.0%	7.8%	8.4%
Net Margin	5.1%	5.5%	5.2%	5.6%

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Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Flowers Foods. 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.