RF Micro Devices (Nasdaq: RFMD) came in under analyst's estimates last quarter, but now has a chance to fix things this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, July 26. RF Micro Devices designs and manufactures high-performance radio-frequency components and compound semiconductors technologies.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock with 11 analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts don't like RF Micro Devices as much as competitor Microsemi overall. 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 $207.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 24.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.05 per share. Estimates range from $0.04 to $0.06.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 97.9% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars, with 94.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on RF Micro Devices and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 238 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, RF Micro Devices' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
RF Micro Devices' profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.3 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 18.2% while cost of sales fell 15.1% to $137.8 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

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

35.4%

37.0%

38.0%

37.4%

Operating Margin

6.2%

15.5%

14.8%

14.8%

Net Margin

11.3%

13.2%

12.3%

10.3%

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

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