Watch Hittite Microwave's (Nasdaq: HITT) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Oct. 20. Hittite Microwave designs and develops high performance integrated circuits, modules and subsystems for technically demanding radio frequency, microwave, and millimeterwave applications.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Hittite Microwave, with four of six rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Hittite Microwave as much as competitor Semtech overall. 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 $69.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 7.7% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.67 per share. Estimates range from $0.66 to $0.68.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.3% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 96.4% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Hittite Microwave has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Hittite Microwave's profit has risen year over year by an average of 40.9% over the past five quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 13.6% while cost of sales rose 23% to $18.7 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 Q2 Q1 Q4 Q3
Gross Margin 72.7% 73.0% 74.5% 74.6%
Operating Margin 46.8% 46.4% 49.1% 50.2%
Net Margin 30.4% 30.0% 31.9% 32.5%
One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Hittite Microwave movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your Watchlist.