AeroVironment Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Watch AeroVironment's (NAS: AVAV) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Wednesday, Sept. 7. AeroVironment is engaged in the design, development, production, and support of unmanned aircraft systems and efficient energy systems for various industries and governmental agencies.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on AeroVironment with 10 of 13 analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like AeroVironment as much as competitor AAR overall. Six out of seven analysts rate AAR a buy compared to three of 13 for AeroVironment. 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 $61.4 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 60.5% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of one cent per share. Estimates range from a loss of $0.04 to a profit of $0.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 98.2% awarding it an "outperform" rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 96.4% granting it a rating of "outperform." Fools are keen on AeroVironment and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 254 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, AeroVironment's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters. The company upped its gross margin by 3.1 percentage points in the last quarter. Revenue rose 6.8% while cost of sales rose 0.9% to $56.8 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.

Quarter

Q4

Q3

Q2

Q1

Gross Margin

46.4%

40.4%

34.1%

31.5%

Operating Margin

23.7%

18.6%

0.6%

(19.1%)

Net Margin

16.6%

13.6%

0.4%

(9%)

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

Motley Fool newsletter services have recommended buying shares of AeroVironment.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.

At the time thisarticle was published

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