Investors are on the edge of their seats, hoping that Hibbett Sports (Nasdaq: HIBB) will top analyst expectations for the third consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, August 19. Hibbett Sports is an operator of sporting goods retail stores in small to mid-sized markets predominately in the Southeast, Southwest, Mid-Atlantic, and lower Midwest regions of the United States.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Hibbett Sports, with 12 of 18 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Hibbett Sports better than competitor Cabela's 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 $151.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 8.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.19 per share. Estimates range from $0.16 to $0.21.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 82.6% granting it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 78.8% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Hibbett Sports, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 47 posts in the past 30 days. Hibbett Sports' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Hibbett Sports' profit has risen year over year by an average of 83.6% over the past five quarters. 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

37.2%

34.9%

35.3%

32.0%

Operating Margin

16.8%

11.1%

12.0%

4.6%

Net Margin

10.5%

7.2%

7.5%

2.9%

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