Brady (NYSE: BRC) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday. Brady is an international manufacturer and marketer of identification solutions and products that identify and protect premises, products, and people.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Brady while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Brady. Analysts don't like Brady as much as competitor Checkpoint Systems overall. Two out of three analysts rate Checkpoint Systems a buy compared to three of six for Brady. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $338.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 2.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.59 per share. Estimates range from $0.55 to $0.62.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 96% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 93.3% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Brady, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 41 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Brady, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Brady's profit has risen year over year by an average of 35.1% 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

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

48.1%

49.6%

48.3%

49.9%

Operating Margin

12.4%

12.1%

11.3%

12.6%

Net Margin

8.6%

8.5%

7.4%

8.0%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks