Enzo Biochem Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Enzo Biochem (NYSE: ENZ  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Dec. 12. Enzo Biochem is engaged in research, development, manufacturing, and marketing of diagnostic and research products based on genetic engineering, biotechnology, and molecular biology.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of Enzo Biochem for the past three months.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $27 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.08 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.08 to a loss of $0.07.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 85.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 86.2% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Enzo Biochem, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 35 posts in the past 30 days. Enzo Biochem's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company upped its gross margin by 3.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 7.5% while cost of sales rose 0.4% to $14.8 million from a year earlier.

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	44.9%	47.9%	43.5%	52.5%
Operating Margin	(15.0%)	(8.8%)	(23.4%)	(4.2%)
Net Margin	(15.0%)	(8.2%)	(24.0%)	(4.4%)

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.