Valspar Earnings Preview

Valspar (NYSE: VAL  ) beat estimates by $0.14 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Feb. 14. Valspar is a global coatings and paints manufacturer and distributor.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Valspar, with six out of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Valspar as much as competitor RPM International overall. Three out of seven analysts rate RPM International a buy compared to four out of 10 for Valspar. 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 $906.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.48 per share. Estimates range from $0.43 to $0.51.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 97.4% awarding it an outperform rating. Most of the community concurs with the All-Stars, with 89.6% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Valspar, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 35 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Valspar, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's operating margins have been decreasing year over year for the last four quarters. Operating margins reflect the total sales revenue that the company retains after costs. Here is how Valspar has been doing for the last four quarters: 

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Valspar's 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.