Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Buffalo Wild Wings (Nasdaq: BWLD) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 26. Buffalo Wild Wings is an owner, operator and franchiser of restaurants featuring a variety of boldly flavored, cravable menu items.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Buffalo Wild Wings with nine of 16 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Buffalo Wild Wings better than competitor BJ's Restaurants overall. Five out of 15 analysts rate BJ's Restaurants a buy compared to seven of 16 for Buffalo Wild Wings. While analysts still rate the stock a Hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $176.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.59 per share. Estimates range from $0.55 to $0.68.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All Stars, with 93.4% granting Buffalo Wild Wings a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Buffalo Wild Wings, and they haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 1,593 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Buffalo Wild Wings, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Buffalo Wild Wings' profit has risen year over year by an average of 29.5%. The company boosted its gross margin by 3.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 19.6%, while cost of sales rose 14.7% to $129.9 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 28.7% 26.7% 25.9% 26.1%
Operating Margin 12.1% 8.9% 7.9% 9.6%
Net Margin 8.2% 6.2% 5.6% 6.3%
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