Investors hope ABM Industries (NYSE: ABM) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.04 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Dec. 13. ABM Industries is a facility services contractor providing janitorial, parking, security, and engineering services for commercial, industrial, institutional, and retail facilities primarily throughout the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on ABM Industries with three of four analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like ABM Industries as much as competitor Healthcare Services Group overall. Three out of six analysts rate Healthcare Services Group a buy compared to one of four for ABM Industries. 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 $1.08 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 19.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.37 per share. Estimates range from $0.34 to $0.40.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 93.8% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 90.8% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced ABM Industries, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 52 posts in the past 30 days. ABM Industries' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
ABM Industries' profit has risen year over year by an average of 27.3% 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

11.5%

10.4%

9.9%

10.8%

Operating Margin

3.8%

2.5%

1.6%

4.0%

Net Margin

2.6%

1.3%

0.8%

2.4%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.