New Jersey Resources Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for New Jersey Resources (NYSE: NJR  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. New Jersey Resources is an energy services holding company providing retail and wholesale energy services to customers in states from the Gulf Coast to New England, including the Mid-Continent region, the West Coast, and Canada.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts don't like New Jersey Resources as much as competitor WGL Holdings overall. Four out of nine analysts rate WGL Holdings a buy compared to two of seven for New Jersey Resources. 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 $641.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 1.5% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.04 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.05 to a profit of $0.08.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 90% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 86.1% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about New Jersey Resources, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 22 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of New Jersey Resources, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company boosted its gross margin by 7.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 35.1% while cost of sales rose 24.7% to $595.9 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 and net margins over the past four quarters.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks