PharMerica (NYSE: PMC) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings Thursday. It is an institutional pharmacy services company that services healthcare facilities and provides pharmacy services to hospitals.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on PharMerica with eight of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like PharMerica better than competitor PetMed Express overall. One out of eight analysts rate PetMed Express a buy compared with two of 10 for PharMerica. Analysts still rate the stock a hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared with three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $527.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 17.1% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.20 per share. Estimates range from $0.18 to $0.20.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.7% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 97.1% awarding it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about PharMerica, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 34 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, PharMerica's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
PharMerica's income has fallen year over year by an average of 66.9%. The company's revenue has now risen for two 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

12.3%

12.7%

12.8%

12.8%

Operating Margin

1.3%

1.8%

2.0%

0.7%

Net Margin

0.6%

1.0%

1.1%

0.3%

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on PharMerica movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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