Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that AAR (NYSE: AIR) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 6. The Company is a diversified provider of products and services to the worldwide aviation and defense industries.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back AAR, with six of seven rating it a buy, and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like AAR better than competitor Embraer-Empresa Brasileir de Aero overall. AAR's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $459.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.45 per share. Estimates range from $0.42 to $0.49.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 95.9% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All Stars, with 93.8% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on AAR and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 112 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of AAR, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
AAR's profit has risen year over year by an average of 23.9%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

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, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

17.2%

16.6%

17.2%

17.9%

Operating Margin

7.8%

7.5%

6.8%

6.4%

Net Margin

4%

3.8%

3.3%

3%

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