NCI Building Systems Earnings Preview

NCI Building Systems (NYSE: NCS  ) beat estimates by $0.08 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Dec. 6. NCI Building Systems is an integrated manufacturer and supplier of metal coil coating services, metal building components, and engineered metal buildings systems in North America.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on NCI Building Systems while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts don't like NCI Building Systems as much as competitor Headwaters overall. Three out of four analysts rate Headwaters a buy compared to one out of two for NCI Building Systems. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $270.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.32 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.52 to a loss of $0.12.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see NCI Building Systemsas a good bet, with 93.8% assigning it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 91.2% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced NCI Building Systems, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 72 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, NCI Building Systems' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
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	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	21.7%	22.5%	17.6%	18.8%
Operating Margin	2.5%	(0.8%)	(7.4%)	(1.6%)
Net Margin	1%	(1.4%)	(6.7%)	(2.3%)

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.