Briggs & Stratton (NYSE: BGG) beat estimates by $0.08 last quarter and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Briggs & Stratton is a producer of air-cooled gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. It designs, manufactures, markets, and services these products for original equipment manufacturers worldwide.

What analysts say

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Briggs & Stratton as two analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts like Briggs & Stratton better than competitor Blount International overall. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $615.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.41 per share. Estimates range from $0.32 to $0.51.

What our community says
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see BGG as a good bet, with 69% assigning it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 74.6% give it an outperform rating. Fools are bullish on Briggs & Stratton, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 61 posts in the past 30 days. The bullish CAPS rating of four out of five stars for Briggs & Stratton outpaces Fool enthusiasm for the company.

Management
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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

20.8%

17.4%

18.6%

18.9%

Operating Margin

10.9%

0.8%

(2.5%)

4.7%

Net Margin

7.2%

(0.3%)

(2.4%)

3.0%

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