Ametek Earnings Preview

Motley Fool Staff
Updated

Watch Ametek's (NYS: AME) earnings report to see if it can beat analyst expectations for the fifth consecutive quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Thursday, Jan. 26. Ametek is a global manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with operations in North America, Europe, Asia, and South America.

What analysts say:

  • Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts strongly back Ametek, with eight out of 11 rating it a buy and the remainder rating it a hold. Analysts like Ametek better than competitor Roper Industries overall. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.

  • Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $765 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 12.8% from the year-ago quarter.

  • Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.60 per share. Estimates range from $0.51 to $0.62.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock, with 98.4% assigning it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars, with 94.6% giving it a rating of outperform. Fools have embraced Ametek, though the message boards have been quiet lately, with only 54 posts in the past 30 days. Even with a robust four out of five stars, Ametek's CAPS rating falls a little short of the community's upbeat outlook.

Management:
Ametek's profit has risen year over year by an average of 44.8% over the past five 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

34.3%

34.1%

34.1%

34.1%

Operating Margin

21.3%

20.7%

21.2%

20%

Net Margin

13.1%

12.4%

12.6%

12%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.

At the time thisarticle was published

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