Jack in the Box Earnings Preview

Investors braced for a bumpy ride ahead of Jack in the Box's (NAS: JACK) earnings announcement as the company has wavered between beating and falling short of analyst predictions during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings Wednesday. Jack in the Box owns, operates, and franchises quick-service restaurants and Qdoba Mexican Grill fast-casual restaurants.

What analysts say:

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 94.9% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 90.2% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are bullish on Jack in the Box and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 149 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Jack in the Box, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:
Jack in the Box's income has fallen year over year by an average of 23.5%. Revenue has fallen in the past two quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.4 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue fell 4.6% while cost of sales fell 1.9% to $434.8 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.

One final thing: If you want to keep tabs on Jack in the Box movements, and for more analysis on the company, make sure you add it to your watchlist.

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At the time thisarticle was published

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