Sigma-Aldrich Third Quarter Earnings Sneak Peek

S&P 500 (NYSE:SPY) component Sigma-Aldrich (NASDAQ:SIAL) will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday, October 23, 2012. Sigma-Aldrich is a life science and high technology company that develops, manufactures, purchases and distributes a range of high quality chemicals, biochemicals and equipment.

Sigma-Aldrich Earnings Preview Cheat Sheet

Wall St. Earnings Expectations: The average estimate of analysts is for net income of 94 cents per share, a decline of 2.1% from the company’s actual earnings for the same quarter a year ago. During the past three months, the average estimate has moved down from $1. Between one and three months ago, the average estimate moved down. It has been unchanged at 94 cents during the last month. Analysts are projecting profit to rise by 3.2% versus last year to $3.85.

Past Earnings Performance: The company met estimates last quarter after beating the forecasts in the prior two. In the second quarter, the company reported profit of 97 cents per share versus a mean estimate of net income of 97 cents per share. In the first quarter, the company beat estimates by 0 cents.

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Stock Price Performance: Between July 24, 2012 and October 17, 2012, the stock price rose $6.26 (9.2%), from $68.10 to $74.36. The stock price saw one of its best stretches over the last year between January 13, 2012 and January 25, 2012, when shares rose for eight straight days, increasing 9.4% (+$6.04) over that span. It saw one of its worst periods between July 18, 2012 and July 25, 2012 when shares fell for six straight days, dropping 7.2% (-$5.24) over that span.

Wall St. Revenue Expectations: On average, analysts predict $657.6 million in revenue this quarter, a rise of 5% from the year-ago quarter. Analysts are forecasting total revenue of $2.64 billion for the year, a rise of 5.6% from last year’s revenue of $2.5 billion.

Analyst Ratings: There are mostly holds on the stock with 10 of 15 analysts surveyed giving that rating.

Key Stats:

On the top line, the company is looking to build on four-straight revenue increases heading into this earnings announcement. Revenue rose 11.2% in the third quarter of the last fiscal year, 4.8% in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal year and 5.2% in the first quarter before increasing again in the second quarter.

There has enjoyed solid performance recently heading into this earnings announcement with profit rising by a year-over-year average of 10.2% for the last four quarters.

A Look Back: In the second quarter, profit rose 1.8% to $115 million (94 cents a share) from $113 million (91 cents a share) the year earlier, meeting analyst expectations. Revenue rose 4.2% to $664 million from $637 million.

Balance Sheet Analysis: The company’s current ratio of assets to liabilities came in at 2.43 last quarter. Having a ratio above 2:1 is usually considered a good indicator of a company’s liquidity and ability to meet creditor demands.

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(Company fundamentals by Xignite Financials. Earnings estimates provided by Zacks)

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