Analogic Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Analogic (Nasdaq: ALOG  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Analogic is a technology company that designs and manufactures advanced medical imaging and security systems and subsystems.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Analogic while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts don't like Analogic as much as competitor OSI Systems overall. Three out of three analysts rate OSI Systems a buy compared to two of four for Analogic. Analogic's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $113.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.44 per share. Estimates range from $0.33 to $0.49.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 81.3% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 82.1% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Analogic, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 18 posts in the past 30 days. Analogic's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Analogic's 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	Q4	Q3	Q2	Q1
Gross Margin	36.2%	37.7%	34.8%	37.6%
Operating Margin	5.0%	4.9%	5.2%	2.1%
Net Margin	4.2%	3.7%	4.5%	2.5%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks