MWI Veterinary Supply (Nasdaq: MWIV) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Monday. The company is a distributor of animal health products to veterinarians across the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock, with five analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts like MWI Veterinary Supply better than competitor VCA Antech overall. MWI Veterinary Supply's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $391.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.81 per share. Estimates range from $0.77 to $0.88.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 100% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 96% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on MWI Veterinary Supply, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 38 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, MWI Veterinary Supply's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
MWI Veterinary Supply's profit has risen year over year by an average of 36.3%.

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

Q2

Q3

Q4

Gross Margin

13.7%

13.9%

12.6%

12.7%

Operating Margin

4.8%

4.6%

4.3%

3.8%

Net Margin

3.0%

2.8%

2.6%

2.5%

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