Gulfport Energy (Nasdaq: GPOR) beat estimates by $0.01 last quarter, and investors are hoping it can beat them again. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Gulfport Energy is an independent oil and gas exploration, development, and production company with its principal properties located in the Louisiana Gulf Coast and in West Texas in the Permian Basin.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Gulfport Energy, with 10 of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Gulfport Energy better than competitor Quicksilver Resources overall. While analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, they are a little more optimistic about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $56.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 70.3% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.51 per share. Estimates range from $0.46 to $0.56.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.3% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 95.6% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Gulfport Energy and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 114 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Gulfport Energy, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Gulfport Energy's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters. The company boosted its gross margin by 5.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 90.3% while cost of sales rose 52.2% to $11.4 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

79.2%

78.1%

76.1%

76.7%

Operating Margin

50.1%

47.0%

39.4%

40.6%

Net Margin

49.6%

45.7%

38.1%

38.2%

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