PCTEL (Nasdaq: PCTI) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope it will surpass expectations this time. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, July 25. PCTEL focuses on wireless broadband technology related to propagation and optimization. It designs and develops innovative antennas that extend the reach of broadband and other wireless networks and that simplify the implementation of those networks.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like PCTEL better than competitor EMS Technologies overall. Zero out of three analysts rate EMS Technologies a buy, compared with four of four for PCTEL. Analysts haven't adjusted their rating of PCTEL for the past three months.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $18.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 5.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.01 per share. Estimates range from breaking even to a profit of $0.02.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 96.3% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 93.3% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about PCTEL, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 26 posts in the past 30 days. PCTEL's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.

Management:
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 45.1% 47.2% 40.5% 45.6%
Operating Margin (21.6%) (7%) (8.7%) (9.5%)
Net Margin (0.7%) (3.8%) (5.4%) (5.8%)
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