Lumber Liquidators Earnings Preview

Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) only managed to meet estimates last quarter, but investors hope that it will surpass expectations this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Lumber Liquidators is a specialty retailer of hardwood flooring in the United States.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Lumber Liquidators as a buy. But with 55.6% of analysts rating it a buy, Lumber Liquidators is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest seven competitors, which average 56.3% buys. Analysts like Lumber Liquidators better than competitor Builders FirstSource overall. Zero out of three analysts rate Builders FirstSource a buy compared to five of nine for Lumber Liquidators. 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 $168.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 14.2% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.22 per share. Estimates range from $0.21 to $0.24.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.1% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 96.6% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Lumber Liquidators and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 147 posts in the past 30 days. Lumber Liquidators has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Lumber Liquidators' income has fallen year over year by an average of 30.2% 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.

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