Tessera Technologies (Nasdaq: TSRA) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. Tessera Technologies is a technology-driven company that invests in, licenses, and delivers miniaturization technologies for next-generation electronic devices.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Tessera Technologies as a buy. But with 60% of analysts rating it a buy, Tessera Technologies is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 63.2% buys. Analysts don't like Tessera Technologies as much as competitor Magma Design Automation overall. Three out of three analysts rate Magma Design Automation a buy compared with three of five for Tessera Technologies. Analysts' rating of Tessera Technologies has stayed constant from three months prior.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $72.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 2.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.24 per share. Estimates range from $0.19 to $0.27.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 95.5% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 93.3% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Tessera Technologies and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 174 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Tessera Technologies' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Tessera Technologies' profit has risen year over year by an average of 52.5%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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

Q1

Q4

Q3

Q2

Gross Margin

91.9%

93.4%

93.3%

92.2%

Operating Margin

23.8%

31.6%

39.1%

34.8%

Net Margin

16.5%

16.8%

23.2%

20.1%

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