Polycom Earnings Preview

Investors never know what to expect for Polycom (Nasdaq: PLCM  ) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Polycom is a global provider of communications solutions.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Polycom, with nine of 15 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Polycom better than competitor Logitech International SA overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $401.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 18.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.21 per share. Estimates range from $0.19 to $0.22.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 93.5% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 90.3% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Polycom, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 87 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Polycom, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Polycom's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than threefold over the past five 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	59.8%	60.4%	59.8%	59.8%
Operating Margin	7.8%	10.6%	10.5%	10.5%
Net Margin	6.3%	7.8%	9.9%	9.8%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Polycom movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.