Vishay Intertechnology Earnings Preview

Vishay Intertechnology (NYSE: VSH) didn't hit the Street's expectations last quarter, but investors hope that it will rebound this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, Feb. 7. Vishay Intertechnology is an international manufacturer and supplier of semiconductors and passive electronic components.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Vishay Intertechnology, with four of five analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Vishay Intertechnology as much as competitor Fairchild Semiconductor International overall. Six out of 10 analysts rate Fairchild Semiconductor International a buy compared to one out of five for Vishay Intertechnology. 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 $570.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 17.1% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.19 per share. Estimates range from $0.18 to $0.20.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 95.9% giving it an outperform rating. Most of the community backs the All-Stars, with 94.6% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools feel positively about Vishay Intertechnology, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 69 posts in the past 30 days. Vishay Intertechnology has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Vishay Intertechnology's profit has risen year over year by an average of more than twofold over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases. The company's gross margin shrank by 5.2 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 8.2% while cost of sales fell 1.2% to $470.2 million from a year earlier.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. For the last two quarters, the company's gross margins have been down year over year. Gross margins reflect the total sales revenue retained after costs. Here are Vishay Intertechnology's reported margins for the last four quarters:

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.