Watch CLARCOR's (NYSE: CLC) earnings report to see whether it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Clarcor conducts its business in three industry segments: engine and mobile filtration, industrial and environmental filtration, and packaging.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on CLARCOR while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Wall Street has warmed to the stock over the past three months, with analysts increasing their endorsement from hold to moderate buy.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $296.3 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.66 per share. Estimates range from $0.64 to $0.68.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 82.6% assigning it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 79.7% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced CLARCOR, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 39 posts in the past 30 days. CLARCOR's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
CLARCOR's profit has risen year over year by an average of 33.8% over the past five 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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

34.5%

32.9%

33.4%

34.8%

Operating Margin

16.9%

12.7%

15.9%

15.9%

Net Margin

11.4%

8.9%

10.5%

10.8%

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