Olin Earnings Preview

Olin (NYSE: OLN) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Olin is a manufacturer concentrated in two business segments: Chlor Alkali Products and Winchester.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Olin, with five of seven rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Olin better than competitor OM Group overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared with three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $498.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 22.9% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.51 per share. Estimates range from $0.45 to $0.61.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 98.1% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 96.9% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Olin and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 191 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Olin's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Olin's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company increased its gross margin by 3.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 20.4% while cost of sales rose 14.9% to $359.2 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, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

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