MSC Industrial Earnings: What To Look For From MSM

Industrial supplies company MSC Industrial Direct (NYSE:MSM) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow morning. Here’s what investors should know.

MSC Industrial met analysts’ revenue expectations last quarter, reporting revenues of $979.4 million, down 7.1% year on year. It was an ok quarter for the company, with a narrow beat of analysts’ operating margin estimates.

Is MSC Industrial a buy or sell going into earnings? Read our full analysis here, it’s free.

This quarter, analysts are expecting MSC Industrial’s revenue to decline 7.3% year on year to $959.8 million, a reversal from the 1.3% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $1.07 per share.

The majority of analysts covering the company have reconfirmed their estimates over the last 30 days, suggesting they anticipate the business to stay the course heading into earnings. MSC Industrial has missed Wall Street’s revenue estimates twice over the last two years.

Looking at MSC Industrial’s peers in the industrial distributors segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Fastenal delivered year-on-year revenue growth of 3.5%, meeting analysts’ expectations, and Richardson Electronics reported revenues up 2.2%, topping estimates by 8.7%. Fastenal traded up 9.6% following the results while Richardson Electronics was down 2.5%.

Read our full analysis of Fastenal’s results here and Richardson Electronics’s results here.

Investors in the industrial distributors segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices flat over the last month. MSC Industrial is down 6.4% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $87 (compared to the current share price of $80.57).

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