Quiksilver Earnings Preview

Quiksilver (NYSE: ZQK  ) didn't hit the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors hope it will rebound this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Quiksilver designs, produces, and distributes apparel, wintersports equipment, footwear, and accessories.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Quiksilver as a buy. But with 55.6% of analysts rating it a buy, Quiksilver is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 74.3% buys. Analysts don't like Quiksilver as much as competitor Oxford Industries overall. Four out of four analysts rate Oxford Industries a buy compared to five of nine for Quiksilver. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $527.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.07 per share. Estimates range from $0.01 to $0.09.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 80% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 87.1% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Quiksilver and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 140 posts in the past 30 days. Quiksilver's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two 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	50.7%	54.8%	52.4%	53.5%
Operating Margin	6.7%	(6.1%)	3.1%	6.9%
Net Margin	2.1%	(17.4%)	(3.8%)	(4.5%)

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks