Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of EMCOR Group's (NYSE: EME) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings Feb. 23. EMCOR Group is an electrical and mechanical construction and facilities services firm, which designs, integrates, installs, operates, and maintains a number of electrical and mechanical systems.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back EMCOR Group as a buy. But with 57.1% of analysts rating it a buy, EMCOR Group is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 72.7% buys. Analysts don't like EMCOR Group as much as competitor Dycom Industries overall. Four out of six analysts rate Dycom Industries a buy compared to four of seven for EMCOR Group. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.47 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.54 per share. Estimates range from $0.49 to $0.61.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are in strong support of the stock, with 96.2% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 95.6% giving it a rating of "outperform." EMCOR Group has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

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. EMCOR Group has seen slipping gross margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. Here is how EMCOR Group has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

12.7%

12.8%

12.4%

15.1%

Operating Margin

3.8%

3.5%

3.2%

5.0%

Net Margin

2.7%

2.1%

1.9%

2.9%

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