AGCO Earnings Preview

Watch AGCO's (NYSE: AGCO  ) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Feb.7. AGCO is a manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment and related replacement parts worldwide. The company sells a range of agricultural equipment, including tractors, combines, self-propelled sprayers, and hay tools.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on AGCO, with eight out of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like AGCO as much as competitor Lindsay overall. Three out of eight analysts rate Lindsay a buy compared to four out of 13 for AGCO. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $2.54 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 17.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.33 per share. Estimates range from $1.20 to $1.51.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 89.7% awarding it an outperform rating. The greater community backs the All-Stars, as 91.5% give it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on AGCO and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 108 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of AGCO, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
AGCO's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than threefold over the past five quarters.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. AGCO has seen rising net margins year over year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. Here are AGCO's reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	19.4%	20.7%	19.8%	18.9%
Operating Margin	5.4%	8.5%	6%	6.6%
Net Margin	4%	5.7%	4.5%	3.9%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.