Investors are on the edges of their seats, hoping that Quaker Chemical (NYSE: KWR) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, July 25. Quaker Chemical is a global provider of process chemicals, chemical specialties, services, and technical expertise to a wide range of industries.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $164.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.75 per share. Estimates range from $0.71 to $0.82.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 98.5% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars, with 97% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Quaker Chemical, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 60 posts in the past 30 days. Quaker Chemical has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Quaker Chemical's profit has risen year over year by an average of 52%. Revenue has gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 3.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 24.6%, while cost of sales rose 32.3% to $107.1 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

33.0%

33.7%

35.6%

35.7%

Operating Margin

8.8%

8.2%

6.9%

9.9%

Net Margin

6.6%

4.9%

4.6%

6.7%

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