Previews From the Trailer Park

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As FEMA begins to pick up in the wake of Katrina and Rita, Foolish investors are probably wondering what's going on with the manufactured housing industry. Are these companies going to turn some profits for a change?

Tomorrow, we'll begin to get some answers to those questions, as manufactured housing makers Champion (NYSE: CHB) and Palm Harbor Homes (Nasdaq: PHHM) report on earnings progress year-to-date. In both cases, the companies will hold off issuing their reports until after the markets are safely locked up for the day, and they'll delay their conference calls until the following morning. Palm Harbor will take calls first, at 10 a.m., and Champion will chime in with its own earnings news at 11 a.m. on Wednesday.

Of the two, industry watchers will likely want to focus on Champion, following the company's Sept. 21 announcement of a $60 million deal to provide manufactured housing to FEMA. The contract likely won't affect Champion's Q3 results much, though. The hurricanes arrived late in the quarter; FEMA has reportedly hit delays in signing contracts for temporary housing; and Champion doesn't expect to complete the contract until the end of November. As a result, investors will probably focus more on Champion's future than on its recently ended quarter.

For that quarter, analysts are projecting $336 million in revenue and $0.21 in profits per diluted share for Champion, and about $171 million in revenue and $0.10 per share for Palm Harbor. If the companies hit those numbers, it'll mark a striking improvement over the year-ago quarter, in which Champion earned just $0.12 per share, and Palm Harbor actually lost a dime.

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Fool contributor Rich Smith owns no shares in either of the companies mentioned above.