Investors hope OfficeMax (NYSE: OMX) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.07 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. OfficeMax provides office supplies and paper, print, and document services, technology products, and furniture to businesses, government offices, and consumers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts are bullish on OfficeMax as four analysts rate it as a buy and only one analyst rates it as a sell. Analysts don't like OfficeMax as much as competitor Stamps.com overall. While analysts still rate the stock a hold, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.8 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.24 per share. Estimates range from $0.20 to $0.28.

What our community says:
The majority of CAPS All-Stars see OMX as a good bet, with 60% granting it an outperform rating. The majority of the Fools are in agreement with the All-Stars as 58.9% give it an outperform rating. Fools are keen on OfficeMax and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 126 posts in the past 30 days. OfficeMax's bearish CAPS rating of one out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three 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

25.8%

25.5%

25.3%

25.9%

Operating Margin

0.2%

1.5%

1.6%

2.3%

Net Margin

(0.1%)

0.6%

0.7%

1.1%

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