Hittite Microwave Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Hittite Microwave (Nasdaq: HITT  ) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, February 14. Hittite Microwave Corporation designs and develops high performance integrated circuits, modules and subsystems for technically demanding radio frequency, microwave and millimeterwave applications.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Hittite Microwave with three of four analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Hittite Microwave as much as competitor Semtech overall. Five out of five analysts rate Semtech a buy compared to one of four for Hittite Microwave. While analysts still rate the stock a Hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $59.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 9.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.53 per share. Estimates range from $0.52 to $0.54.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are in strong support of the stock, with 96.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The greater community agrees with the All-Stars, as 96.5% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools feel positively about Hittite Microwave and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 103 posts in the past 30 days. Hittite Microwave has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Hittite Microwave's profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 24.4% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Hittite Microwave has seen decreasing gross margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. See how Hittite Microwave has been doing for the last four quarters: 

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.