Dycom Industries Earnings Preview

Dycom Industries (NYSE: DY  ) beat estimates by $0.14 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Nov. 21. Dycom Industries provides specialty contracting services to the dynamic telecommunications and infrastructure industry. Its services include engineering, construction, maintenance, and installation services for telecommunications providers.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Dycom Industries, with five out of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $291.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.30 per share. Estimates range from $0.25 to $0.32.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 97% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 94.8% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Dycom Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 21 posts in the past 30 days. Dycom Industries has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company increased its gross margin by 2.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 7.9% while cost of sales rose 5% to $239.1 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	Q4	Q3	Q2	Q1
Gross Margin	21.3%	18%	16.8%	20%
Operating Margin	7.5%	2.4%	(0.5%)	5.3%
Net Margin	4.3%	0.6%	(2.3%)	2.6%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.