Kaydon Earnings Preview

Kaydon (NYSE: KDN  ) came in under analyst's estimates last quarter, but now have a chance to fix things this quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Friday, Feb. 24. Kaydon is a designer and manufacturer of custom-engineered, performance-critical products, supplying a diverse customer base.

What analysts say:

• Buy, sell, or hold?: Analysts think investors should stand pat on Kaydon with six of eight analysts rating it hold. Analysts don't like Kaydon as much as competitor RBC Bearings overall. Five out of six analysts rate RBC Bearings a buy compared to two of eight for Kaydon. 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 $122.1 million in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 16.4% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.46 per share. Estimates range from $0.40 to $0.51.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly behind the stock, with 100% assigning it an "outperform" rating. The greater community concurs with the All-Stars, as 98.8% give it a rating of "outperform."�Kaydon has a bullish CAPS rating of five out of five stars that is about on par with the Fool community assessment.

Management:
Revenue has fallen in the past two quarters.

Now let's get some insight into how efficient management is at running the business. Margins illustrate how efficiently a company captures portions of sales dollars. For the last two quarters, Kaydon experienced a boost in gross margin year over year. Gross margin reflects the total sales revenue that the company retains after costs. Here are Kaydon's reported margins for the last four quarters: !

Quarter	Q1	Q4	Q3	Q2
Gross Margin	35.8%	36.7%	32.5%	37.8%
Operating Margin	16.2%	16.3%	15.7%	21.6%
Net Margin	11.1%	10.8%	11.1%	14.7%

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Earnings estimates provided by Zacks.