Blue Nile (Nasdaq: NILE) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Feb. 7. Blue Nile is an online retailer of high-quality diamonds and fine jewelry in the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Blue Nile with six of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Blue Nile as much as competitor Zale overall. One out of three analysts rate Zale a buy compared to zero of eight for Blue Nile.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $123.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.42 per share. Estimates range from $0.41 to $0.42.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 81% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 77.4% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on Blue Nile and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 497 posts in the past 30 days. Blue Nile's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Blue Nile's income has fallen year-over-year by an average of 4.1% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's operating margins have dropped year-over-year for the last three quarters. Operating margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. See how Blue Nile has been doing for the last four quarters: 

Quarter Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4
Gross Margin 19.8% 21.3% 21.1% 22.0%
Operating Margin 3.8% 5.3% 4.4% 8.0%
Net Margin 2.5% 3.5% 3.0% 5.4%

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

Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of Blue Nile.. Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.