Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Zebra Technologies (Nasdaq: ZBRA) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, April 27. Zebra Technologies designs, manufactures, sells, and supports direct thermal and thermal transfer label printers, radio frequency identification printer/encoders, and dye sublimation card printers.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Zebra Technologies with four of five analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Zebra Technologies as much as competitor Intermec overall. One out of four analysts rate Intermec a buy compared to one of five for Zebra Technologies. 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 $243 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 2.4% from the year-ago quarter.
  • Wall Street Earnings Expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.57 per share. Estimates range from $0.56 to $0.59.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 93.8% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The greater community backs the All-Stars, as 92.9% give it a rating of "outperform." Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Zebra Technologies, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Zebra Technologies' profit has risen year-over-year by an average of 72.7% over the past five quarters. A year-over-year revenue decrease last quarter snaps a streak of three consecutive quarters of revenue increases.

Now, a look at how efficient management has been at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. Zebra Technologies has seen rising net margins year-over-year for the last four quarters. Net margins reflect what percentage of each dollar earned by the company becomes profit. Here is how Zebra Technologies has been doing for the last four quarters: 

Quarter Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1
Gross Margin 49.1% 48.8% 49.6% 50.6%
Operating Margin 17.0% 19.3% 19.0% 18.7%
Net Margin 14.2% 17.8% 13.4% 26.0%

For all our Zebra Technologies-specific analysis, including earnings and beyond, add Zebra Technologies to My Watchlist.

Try any of our Foolish newsletter services free for 30 days. We Fools may not all hold the same opinions, but we all believe that considering a diverse range of insights makes us better investors. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.