Gentex Earnings Preview

Gentex (Nasdaq: GNTX) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope it will surpass expectations this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Gentex designs, develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary electro-optic products, including automatic-dimming rearview mirrors for the automotive industry and fire protection products mainly for the commercial building industry.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on Gentex as five analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts don't like Gentex as much as competitor Lear overall. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained unchanged in their opinion of the stock.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $260.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 26% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.29 per share. Estimates range from $0.28 to $0.30.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 93.1% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 89.1% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Gentex, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 46 posts in the past 30 days. Though still bullish, the CAPS rating of four out of five stars for Gentex is a bit more pessimistic than the community assessment.

Management:
Gentex's profit has risen year over year by an average of 27.4% 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.

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