Pulse Electronics (NYSE: PULS) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fourth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. Pulse Electronics is a producer of precision-engineered electronic components and modules.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Half of analysts think investors should stand pat on Pulse Electronics while the remaining half rate the stock as a buy. Analysts don't like Pulse Electronics as much as competitor KEMET overall. Four out of five analysts rate KEMET a buy compared to one of two for Pulse Electronics. 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 $94 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 22.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is a loss of $0.03 per share.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 89.3% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 93.7% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Pulse Electronics, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 69 posts in the past 30 days. Pulse Electronics' bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
Revenue has fallen for the past three quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.9 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 18.6% while cost of sales fell 15.4% to $72.4 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

23.6%

20.9%

24.8%

27.1%

Operating Margin

(4.5%)

(11.7%)

4.1%

6.6%

Net Margin

(4.8%)

(5.0%)

1.2%

11.6%

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