eResearch Technology (Nasdaq: ERT) hasn't been able to establish an earnings trend, bouncing between beating and falling short of estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday, August 1. eResearchTechnology, Inc. provides technology and service solutions which enable the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries to collect, interpret and distribute cardiac safety and clinical data more efficiently.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back eResearch Technology, with five of seven rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like eResearch Technology as much as competitor BioClinica 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 $44.9 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 54.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.10 cents per share. Estimates range from $0.08 cents to $0.10 cents.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 95.3% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 94.5% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced eResearch Technology, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 60 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of eResearch Technology, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
eResearch Technology's profit has risen year over year by an average of 12.1%. The company's gross margin shrank by 9.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 90.7% while cost of sales rose 130.3% to $23.3 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 44.2% 43.9% 44.5% 54.4%
Operating Margin 12.8% 11.6% 14.6% 3.6%
Net Margin 7.4% 9.2% 7% 2.8%

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