Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of TriQuint Semiconductor's (Nasdaq: TQNT) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Oct. 26. Triquint Semiconductor is a supplier of modules, components, and foundry services to communications companies.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on TriQuint Semiconductor. Analysts don't like TriQuint Semiconductor as much as competitor Microsemi overall. Eight out of nine analysts rate Microsemi a buy compared to five of 12 for TriQuint Semiconductor.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $214.2 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 9.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.06 per share. Estimates range from $0.06 to $0.07.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 99% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 97% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced TriQuint Semiconductor and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 184 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, TriQuint Semiconductor's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
TriQuint Semiconductor's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than threefold 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

40.3%

39.0%

39.0%

41.3%

Operating Margin

9.3%

9.0%

14.7%

16.4%

Net Margin

7.2%

5.5%

16.8%

47.3%

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