Boston Scientific Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Boston Scientific (NYS: BSX) will try to beat its earnings estimates for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday. Boston Scientific provides devices used in medical procedures.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Boston Scientific with 20 of 27 analysts rating it hold. Analysts like Boston Scientific better than competitor C.R. Bard overall. Three out of 20 analysts rate C.R. Bard a buy compared to six of 27 for Boston Scientific. 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 $1.91 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a decline of 0.5% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.08 per share. Estimates range from $0.07 to $0.10.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock with 89.9% granting it an outperform rating. The community at large backs the All-Stars with 79.5% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about Boston Scientific and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 418 posts in the past 30 days. Despite the majority sentiment in favor of Boston Scientific, the stock has a middling CAPS rating of three out of five stars.

Management:

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

Q2

Q1

Q4

Q3

Gross Margin

65.2%

67.2%

67.0%

67.5%

Operating Margin

12.0%

16.7%

17.4%

13.1%

Net Margin

7.4%

2.4%

11.8%

9.9%

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At the time thisarticle was published

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