Investors are on the edges of their seats, hoping that AnnTaylor Stores (NYSE: ANN) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, August 19. Ann Taylor offers a range of career and casual separates, dresses, tops, weekend wear, shoes, and accessories to provide modern styles that are versatile across all occasions and needs.
What analysts say:
- Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on this stock, with nine analysts rating it as a buy and only one rating it as a sell. Analysts don't like AnnTaylor Stores as much as competitor bebe stores, inc overall.
- Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $550.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 13.8% from the year-ago quarter.
- Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.45 per share. Estimates range from $0.41 to $0.49.
What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All Stars see ANN as a good bet, with 72.7% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The majority of Fools are in agreement, with 69.6% of the All Stars giving it an "outperform" rating. Fools are gung-ho about AnnTaylor Stores and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 145 posts in the past 30 days. AnnTaylor Stores' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.
Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 10% while cost of sales rose 15.7% to $223.7 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 |
57.3% |
51.7% |
57.2% |
55.0% |
|
Operating Margin |
8.8% |
2.0% |
8.1% |
6.2% |
|
Net Margin |
5.2% |
1.5% |
4.8% |
3.8% |
One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on AnnTaylor Stores movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.
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