H.B. Fuller Co. Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Investors never know what to expect for H.B. Fuller Co. (NYS: FUL) , as it has wavered between topping and missing analysts estimates during the past fiscal year. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Monday. H.B. Fuller is a formulator, manufacturer, and marketer of adhesives, sealants, paints, and other specialty chemical products.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on H.B. Fuller with five of seven analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like H.B. Fuller as much as competitor PPG Industries overall. Six out of 12 analysts rate PPG Industries a buy compared to two of seven for H.B. Fuller. H.B. Fuller's rating hasn't changed over the past three months.

  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $418.8 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 16.2% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.60 per share. Estimates range from $0.55 to $0.64.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 96.3% giving it an outperform rating. The community at large concurs with the All-Stars with 91.3% assigning it a rating of outperform. Fools are gung-ho about H.B. Fuller, though the message boards have been quiet lately with only 21 posts in the past 30 days. H.B. Fuller has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
H.B. Fuller's profit has risen year over year by an average of 28.9% over the past five quarters. Revenue has now gone up for three straight quarters.

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

Q3

Q2

Q1

Q4

Gross Margin

28.9%

28.6%

28.5%

28.3%

Operating Margin

8.4%

8.9%

6.2%

8.2%

Net Margin

6.0%

6.4%

4.2%

6.1%

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

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks

At the time thisarticle was published

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