Worthington Industries Earnings Preview

Worthington Industries (NYSE: WOR) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, June 30. A metal processing company, Worthington is focused on value-added steel processing and manufactured metal products.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Worthington with three of five analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Worthington Industries as much as competitor AK Steel overall. Four out of nine analysts rate AK Steel a buy compared to two of five for Worthington. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained unchanged in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $649.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 3.6% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average analyst is estimating earnings of 56 cents per share. Estimates range from 48 cents to 73 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 91.1% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars with 85.8% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Worthington, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 70 posts in the past 30 days. Though still bullish, the CAPS rating of four out of five stars for Worthington is a bit more pessimistic than the community assessment.

Management:
Worthington's income has fallen year over year by an average of 98%. The company raised its gross margin by 2.7 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 26.2% while cost of sales rose 22.3% to $481.2 million from a year earlier.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross and net margins over the past four quarters.

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