After beating estimates last quarter by $0.02, UTi Worldwide (Nasdaq: UTIW) has set the standard for itself. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. UTi Worldwide provides air and ocean freight forwarding, contract logistics, customs brokerage, distribution, inbound logistics, truckload brokerage, and other supply chain management services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on UTi Worldwide with seven of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like UTi Worldwide better than competitor Pacer International overall. Two out of nine analysts rate Pacer International a buy compared to six of 13 for UTi Worldwide. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained unchanged in their opinion of the stock.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.34 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.28 per share. Estimates range from $0.27 to $0.31.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 91.2% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 91.2% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced UTi Worldwide, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 58 posts in the past 30 days. UTi Worldwide's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
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 34.2% 34.3% 35.3% 33.9%
Operating Margin 3.1% 1.6% 2.3% 3.7%
Net Margin 1.8% 0.7% 1.3% 2.2%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks