Saks Earnings Preview

Saks (NYSE: SKS  ) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Nov. 15. Saks is a fashion retail organization offering an assortment of luxury fashion apparel, shoes, accessories, jewelry, cosmetics, and gifts.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Saks, with seven out of nine analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Saks as much as competitor Dillard's overall. One out of two analysts rate Dillard's a buy compared to two out of nine for Saks. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $701.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.09 per share. Estimates range from $0.08 to $0.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 76% assigning it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 75.4% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Saks and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 175 posts in the past 30 days. Saks' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	38%	44.1%	37.8%	42.6%
Operating Margin	-0.6%	8.3%	6.6%	4.8%
Net Margin	-1.2%	3.9%	2.9%	5.5%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.