AZZ (NYSE: AZZ) met its estimates last quarter, but investors hope it will beat them this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday. AZZ is an electrical equipment and components manufacturer.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on AZZ with three of five analysts rating it hold. Analysts like AZZ better than competitor Powell Industries overall. One out of three analysts rate Powell Industries a buy compared to two of five for AZZ. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of AZZ for the past three months.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $117.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 14.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.79 per share. Estimates range from $0.75 to $0.85.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 97.7% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 98% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about AZZ and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 207 posts in the past 30 days. AZZ has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
AZZ's profit has risen year over year by an average of 18.8% over the past five quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.7 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 15.1% while cost of sales rose 19.5% to $84.3 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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

26.5%

27.2%

27.2%

26.9%

Operating Margin

13.6%

12.7%

14.2%

14.8%

Net Margin

8.4%

8.3%

9.2%

9.4%

For all our AZZ-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add AZZ to My Watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks