Smith Micro Software Earnings Preview

Smith Micro Software (Nasdaq: SMSI  ) didn't hit the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors hope that it will rebound this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, Feb. 20. Smith Micro Software designs, develops, and markets software products and services for the mobile industry.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Smith Micro Software with eight of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Smith Micro Software as much as competitor Interactive Intelligence overall. Four out of eight analysts rate Interactive Intelligence a buy compared to two of 10 for Smith Micro Software. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steady in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $13.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 62.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.25 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.33 to a loss of $0.19.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are strongly supporting the stock, with 97.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The greater community backs the All-Stars, as 96.1% give it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Smith Micro Software and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 282 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Smith Micro Software's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 18.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 62.9% while cost of sales fell 1.9% to $3.7 million from a year earlier.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Smith Micro Software's gross margins, which reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs, have been slipping year-over-year for the last three quarters. See how Smith Micro Software has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter	Q3	Q2	Q1	Q4
Gross Margin	70.7%	77.9%	78.8%	88.5%
Operating Margin	(1013.2%)	(81.0%)	(73.1%)	16.8%
Net Margin	(1064.6%)	(48.7%)	(43.6%)	16.4%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.