NCI (Nasdaq: NCIT) 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 Wednesday, Feb. 15. NCI is a provider of information technology, engineering, and professional services and solutions to federal government agencies.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on NCI with seven of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like NCI as much as competitor Dynamics Research overall. Two out of five analysts rate Dynamics Research a buy compared to zero of 10 for NCI.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $116.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 31.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.06 per share. Estimates range from $0.01 to $0.15.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 90% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The greater community concurs with the All-Stars, as 94.8% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced NCI, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 54 posts in the past 30 days. NCI's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
NCI's income has fallen year over year by an average of 16.2% over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. NCI has seen decreasing operating margins year over year for the last four quarters. Operating margins reflect the total sales revenue that the company retains after costs. Here are NCI's reported margins for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

11.5%

9.6%

11.3%

11.5%

Operating Margin

4.9%

4.3%

6.5%

6.9%

Net Margin

2.6%

2.4%

3.8%

4.0%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.