Brown Shoe Company Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Brown Shoe Company (NYSE: BWS  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Nov. 21. Brown Shoe is a footwear retailer and wholesaler that provides an offering of licensed, branded, and private-label casual, dress, and athletic footwear products to women, men, and children.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Brown Shoe with three of five analysts rating it a hold. 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 $777.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.52 per share. Estimates range from $0.40 to $0.59.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 78.2% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 78% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Brown Shoe, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 54 posts in the past 30 days. Brown Shoe's 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. The company's gross margin shrank by 3.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 7.2% while cost of sales rose 12.8% to $391.6 million from a year earlier.

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	37.7%	40%	38.9%	39.4%
Operating Margin	0%	2%	1%	4.6%
Net Margin	(0.7%)	0.6%	0.6%	2.6%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.