Maidenform Brands Earnings Preview

Investors are on the edge of their collective seats, hoping that Maidenform Brands (NYS: MFB) will top analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday. Maidenform Brands is a global intimate apparel company with a portfolio of established and well-known brands, top-selling products, and an iconic heritage. It designs, sources, and markets intimate apparel products.

What analysts say

What our community says
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 98.3% awarding it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 94.2% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Maidenform Brands, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 56 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Maidenform Brands' CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management
Maidenform Brands' profit has risen year over year by an average of 18.7%. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company's gross margin shrank by 2.3 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 14.4% while cost of sales rose 18.6% to $107.9 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.

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At the time thisarticle was published

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