Pentair (NYSE: PNR) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 26. Pentair, Inc. is an industrial manufacturing company, which is comprised of two operating segments: water and technical products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Pentair with 11 of 17 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Pentair as much as competitor IDEX overall. Eight out of 13 analysts rate IDEX a buy compared to six of 17 for Pentair. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $895.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.72 per share. Estimates range from $0.68 to $0.74.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.6% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars, with 92.8% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Pentair, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 53 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Pentair, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Pentair's profit has risen year over year by an average of 60.3%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

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

31.5%

30.8%

30.6%

31.2%

Operating Margin

10.9%

10.6%

11.7%

12.6%

Net Margin

6.4%

6.2%

7.1%

7.7%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Pentair movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.