Landauer (NYSE: LDR) 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 Wednesday, Nov. 9. Landauer is a global provider of technical and analytical services that determine occupational and environmental radiation exposure. The company also provides outsourced medical physics services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Landauer as a buy. But with 66.7% of analysts rating it a buy, Landauer is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest 10 competitors, which average 76.9% buys. Analysts' rating of Landauer has stayed constant from three months prior.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $30.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.58 per share. Estimates range from $0.52 to $0.67.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 95.2% giving it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 93.1% assigning it a rating of "outperform." Fools are gung-ho about Landauer, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 23 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Landauer's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Landauer's income has fallen year over year by an average of 1.9% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.6 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 11.1% while cost of sales rose 18.5% to $12.1 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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

58.6%

64.1%

61.0%

57.6%

Operating Margin

26.9%

36.7%

28.6%

25.7%

Net Margin

19.0%

24.7%

20.5%

15.7%

For all our Landauer-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Landauer to My Watchlist.

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