Sonoco Products (NYSE: SON) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope it will surpass expectations this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Sonoco Products is a manufacturer of industrial and consumer packaging products and a provider of packaging services, in different countries.

What analysts say

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Sonoco Products, with six of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Sonoco Products more than competitor Bemis overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.13 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 11.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.63 per share. Estimates range from $0.59 to $0.65.

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 100% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 92.1% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Sonoco Products, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 27 posts in the past 30 days. Sonoco Products has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management
Sonoco Products' profit has risen year over year by an average of 22.7%.

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

17.4%

17.7%

19.0%

19.1%

Operating Margin

8.0%

7.7%

8.1%

8.9%

Net Margin

5.1%

3.1%

5.6%

5.8%

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