MAXIMUS Earnings Preview

Watch MAXIMUS's (NYSE: MMS  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Nov. 10. MAXIMUS provides operations program management and consulting services to government and government agencies in the United States and abroad.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like MAXIMUS better than competitor FTI Consulting overall. Four out of 10 analysts rate FTI Consulting a buy compared to five of five for MAXIMUS.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $249.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 17.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.60 per share. Estimates range from $0.59 to $0.61.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 96.7% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 91.1% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced MAXIMUS, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 20 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of MAXIMUS, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
MAXIMUS' profit has risen year over year by an average of 51% 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	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	27.9%	27.8%	26.1%	28.2%
Operating Margin	12.9%	13.0%	12.7%	13.7%
Net Margin	8.3%	8.0%	8.2%	10.1%

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