Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Fairchild Semiconductor International (NYSE: FCS) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, July 14. Fairchild Semiconductor International is focused on developing, manufacturing and selling power analog, power discrete and certain non-power semiconductor solutions to a range of end market customers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Fairchild Semiconductor International as six analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rate it as a sell. Analysts don't like Fairchild Semiconductor International as much as competitor Microsemi overall. While analysts still rate the stock a Hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $430.3 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 $0.40 per share. Estimates range from $0.38 to $0.41.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 92.1% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Fairchild Semiconductor International, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 50 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Fairchild Semiconductor International, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Fairchild Semiconductor International's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than fourfold. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company upped its gross margin by 4.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 9.3% while cost of sales rose 1.8% to $261 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, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters. 

Quarter Q1 Q4 Q3 Q2
Gross Margin 36.8% 37% 36.4% 35%
Operating Margin 12.6% 12.8% 11.7% 12.8%
Net Margin 10.5% 12.8% 8.6% 10.7%

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