Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Cascade's (NYSE: CASC) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Cascade is an international company that manufactures materials handling products that are used on industrial lift trucks and on construction, mining, and agricultural vehicles.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Cascade, with two of three rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Cascade better than competitor NACCO Industries overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $133 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 23.9% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.20 per share. Estimates range from $1.11 to $1.36.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.4% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 93.9% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Cascade, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 57 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Cascade's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
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 31.9% 32.6% 28.7% 31.5%
Operating Margin 15.5% 18.0% 6.3% 14.4%
Net Margin 10.2% 12.1% 3.4% 8.2%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks