THQ (Nasdaq: THQI) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, July 27. THQ is a worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software for all popular game systems.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on THQ with 14 of 19 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like THQ as much as competitor Take-Two Interactive Software overall. Seven out of 15 analysts rate Take-Two Interactive Software a buy, compared to four of 19 for THQ. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it than they were three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $172.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.59 per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.70 to a loss of $0.55.

What our community says:
CAPS All Stars are solidly behind the stock with 81.6% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All Stars with 82.9% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced THQ and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 168 posts in the past 30 days. THQ's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three 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

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

30.6%

19.7%

14.7%

23.1%

Operating Margin

(39.9%)

(5.1%)

(54.9%)

(18.5%)

Net Margin

(35.5%)

(4.8%)

(61%)

(20.2%)

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