Greatbatch (NYSE: GB) beat estimates by $0.07 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Feb. 23. Greatbatch is a developer and manufacturer of critical products used in medical devices for the cardiac rhythm management, neuromodulation, vascular, orthopedic, and interventional radiology markets.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Greatbatch, as three analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts don't like Greatbatch as much as competitor Spectranetics overall.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $139.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.39 per share. Estimates range from $0.38 to $0.40.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 88.5% awarding it an outperform rating. Most of the community is in line with the All-Stars, with 87.2% granting it a rating of outperform. The bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars for Greatbatch outpaces Fool enthusiasm for the company.

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

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Greatbatch has seen rising net margins year over year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. See how Greatbatch has been doing for the last four quarters:

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

31.8%

31.8%

31.7%

33.4%

Operating Margin

9.8%

12.5%

12.1%

18.4%

Net Margin

5.3%

5.8%

8.0%

10.4%

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

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.