Curtiss-Wright (NYSE: CW) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, February 14. Curtiss-Wright is a multinational manufacturing and service company that designs, manufactures, and overhauls precision components and systems and provides highly engineered products and services.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Curtiss-Wright with six of 10 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Curtiss-Wright better than competitor Northrop Grumman overall. Three out of 17 analysts rate Northrop Grumman a buy compared to four of 10 for Curtiss-Wright. Analysts still rate the stock a Hold, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
  • Revenue Forecasts: On average, analysts predict $573.6 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 9.6% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.84 per share. Estimates range from $0.81 to $0.86.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are enthusiastically backing the stock, with 98.5% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars, with 99.4% giving it a rating of "outperform." Fools have embraced Curtiss-Wright, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 49 posts in the past 30 days. Curtiss-Wright has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Curtiss-Wright's profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 25.4% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins are a representation of how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. The company's net margins have been increasing year-over-year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of revenue becomes profit. Here are Curtiss-Wright's reported margins for the last four quarters: 

Quarter Q3 Q2 Q1 Q4
Gross Margin 33.1% 32.8% 32.3% 33.2%
Operating Margin 9.7% 10% 9% 10.9%
Net Margin 6.7% 6.2% 5.3% 7%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.