Arrow Electronics (NYSE: ARW) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Arrow Electronics is a provider of products, services, and solutions to industrial and commercial users of electronic components and enterprise computing solutions.

What analysts say

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Arrow Electronics, with eight of nine rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Arrow Electronics better than competitor Avnet overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $5.74 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 24.5% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.36 per share. Estimates range from $1.35 to $1.37.

What our community says
CAPS All Stars are solidly backing the stock with 98.5% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 95.5% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Arrow Electronics, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 62 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Arrow Electronics' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Arrow Electronics' profit has risen year over year by an average of more than fourfold.

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

13.8%

13.0%

13.1%

12.8%

Operating Margin

4.2%

4.4%

4.0%

4.1%

Net Margin

2.6%

3.0%

2.5%

2.5%

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