RV and manufactured housing company Coachmen (NYSE:COA) pulls into the driveway with a Q1 2006 earnings report tomorrow morning. Want to know what Wall Street expects to see? Read on. Want to know what really matters? Read on a bit more.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or waffle? Exactly zero analysts follow Coachman.
  • Revenues and earnings. As a result, I'm afraid we've got no guidance to work with here. No sales estimates, and no profits estimates, either.

What management says:
Coachmen's been holding a fire sale on assets in recent months. In its last 8-K filing with the SEC, the company described selling off its Miller Building subsidiary for a potential total of $13.5 million (with $2 million of that conditional on Miller meeting performance objectives over the next five years). Coachmen also sold $2.6 million worth of real estate and announced a planned sale of its All American Homes facilities for $5.3 million. With the exception of this last deal, all of the sales will show up in tomorrow's results.

Speaking of firings, in February, the firm also reported firing its COO for "personal violations of company policies which did not involve any improprieties in the Company's financial statements, accounting practices, or public filings."

What management does:
According to another press release, Coachmen reported continuing strong growth in its Sportscoach subsidiary, which increased its market share by 30% last year and boosted unit sales by 19.4%. Coachmen noted that it's seeing these trends continue into 2006. This, however, is against the background of a decline in firmwide revenues of more than 12% for 2005 (versus 2004 numbers), a net loss under generally accepted accounting principles, and negative free cash flow for the year.

Margin-wise, of course, the firm looks bad all around:

Margins %

9/04

12/04

3/05

6/05

9/05

12/05

Gross

14.5

14.1

13.7

12.8

10.9

7.7

Op.

2

2.3

1.4

0.1

(1.7)

(5.7)

Net

1.6

1.9

1.5

0.8

(1.1)

(3.8)
All data courtesy of Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor's. Data reflects trailing-12-month performance for the quarters ending in the named months.

One Fool says:
Coachmen is clearly one of the weaker players in the RV market, and although it's making serious efforts to get its business back on track, the broader investing world is betting against Coachmen's success -- over 13% of its shares were sold short at last report. That said, the firm is now selling for less than its book value. If turnarounds are your thing, this firm bears watching.

Competitors:

  • Fleetwood (NYSE:FLE)
  • Monaco (NYSE:MNC)
  • National RV (NYSE:NVH)
  • Thor (NYSE:THO)
  • Winnebago (NYSE:WGO)

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Fool contributor Rich Smith does not own shares of any company named above.