Toro Earnings Preview

Toro (NYSE: TTC  ) came in under analysts' estimates last quarter, but now has a chance to fix things this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Dec. 6. Toro designs, manufactures, and markets professional turf maintenance equipment and services, turf and agricultural micro-irrigation systems, landscaping equipment, and residential yard maintenance and snow removal products.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Toro, with four out of five rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Toro for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $358 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.09 per share. Estimates range from $0.08 to $0.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 96.7% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 94.1% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Toro, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 50 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Toro's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Toro's income has fallen year over year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters. 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	33.5%	33.8%	35.7%	32.9%
Operating Margin	10.9%	14.8%	7.1%	1.6%
Net Margin	7%	9.5%	4.5%	1%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Toro's movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.