Investors hope LKQ (Nasdaq: LKQX) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.02 cents in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 23. LKQ provides replacement systems, components, and parts needed to repair vehicles.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back LKQ, with eight of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like LKQ better than competitor Genuine Parts Company overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $915.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 35.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.37 per share. Estimates range from $0.36 to $0.39.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are in strong support of the stock, with 97.6% awarding it an "outperform" rating. Most of the community concurs with the All-Stars, with 95.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Despite the majority sentiment in favor of LKQ, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
LKQ's profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 19.8% over the past five quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. LKQ has seen decreasing gross margin year-over-year for the last four quarters. Gross margin reflects the total sales revenue retained after costs. See how LKQ has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

42.6%

42.4%

43.7%

42.7%

Operating Margin

10.9%

10.3%

13.6%

10.8%

Net Margin

6.3%

6.1%

7.4%

6.1%

For all our LKQ-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add LKQ to My Watchlist.

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.