Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Esterline Technologies (NYSE: ESL) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Dec. 8. Esterline Technologies designs, manufactures, and markets highly engineered products. It serves the aerospace and defense industry, primarily in the United States and Europe.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Esterline Technologies, with seven out of 10 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Esterline Technologies better than competitor HEICO 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 $524.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 21.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $1.16 per share. Estimates range from $0.86 to $1.35.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 98% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars, with 95.4% granting it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Esterline Technologies, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 56 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Esterline Technologies' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Esterline Technologies' profit has risen year over year by an average of 64.5% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight 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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

35.1%

37%

35.6%

36.2%

Operating Margin

12.3%

15.5%

12.5%

16.4%

Net Margin

9.2%

10.5%

8.1%

14.3%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.