Investors never know what to expect for Park Electrochemical (NYSE: PKE), as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. Park Electrochemical develops, manufactures, markets, and sells high-technology digital and RF/microwave printed circuit materials products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Park Electrochemical, with two of three rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts don't like Park Electrochemical as much as competitor Rogers overall. That rating hasn't budged in three months as analysts have remained steady in their opinion of the stock.
  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $51.5 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.8% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.33 per share. Estimates range from $0.25 to $0.40.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.3% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 93.5% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are bullish on Park Electrochemical, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 27 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Park Electrochemical's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Park Electrochemical's income has fallen year over year by an average of 23.9% over the past five quarters. Revenue has fallen in the past two quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 4.8 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 7.4% while cost of sales fell 0.8% to $35.9 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

28.8%

30.8%

33.1%

30.9%

Operating Margin

15.1%

16.2%

20.3%

14.5%

Net Margin

15.2%

14%

16.2%

10.7%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks