If comScore (Nasdaq: SCOR) misses estimates again, it will be the consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, July 28. comScore provides a digital marketing intelligence platform that helps customers make better-informed business decisions and implement more effective digital business strategies.
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are very bullish on this stock, unanimously backing it as a buy. Analysts like comScore better than competitor Arbitron overall. Five out of six analysts rate Arbitron a buy, compared with 10 of 10 for comScore.
- Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $57.7 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 37.5% from the year-ago quarter.
- Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.08 per share. Estimates range from breaking even to a loss of $0.18.
What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 93.3% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 85% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on comScore, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 49 posts in the past 30 days. comScore's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community's sentiment.
Management:
The company's gross margin shrank by 3.7 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 46.5% while cost of sales rose 65.5% to $17.1 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 | 67.6% | 69.8% | 69.9% | 70.5% |
| Operating Margin | (4.8%) | (2.6%) | (7%) | 4.2% |
| Net Margin | (0.6%) | (1%) | (4.7%) | 2% |
