Earnings Preview for Cascade

Cascade CASC will be reporting its first-quarter fiscal 2012 results tomorrow, June 2, after the closing bell. Investors will be watching to see the impact of flood damage to the company's Brisbane, Australia, facility in February. But the big question is whether the share price will pop the way it did after the previous quarterly report. Analysts are looking for the forklift maker to post earnings of $0.82 per share on revenues of $113.3 million. That is up from $0.51 per share and $94.4 million in the same period of last year. The consensus earnings estimate is two cents a share higher than 60 days ago. Looking Ahead So far, analysts expect to see sequential and year-over-year growth of both earnings and revenues in the second quarter, as well as earnings up 37.8% and revenues up 15.1% for the full fiscal year. Note that analysts have underestimated Cascade earnings half the time in the past four quarters. Also, investors may take some comfort from the fact that competitor Nacco Industries NC posted better-than-expected earnings in its quarterly report earlier this month. The Company Cascade manufactures and distributes material handling load engagement products and related replacement parts worldwide, primarily for the lift truck and construction industries. The company was founded in 1943 and is headquartered in Fairview, Oregon. Performance Cascade has a dividend yield of 1.1% and a long-term earnings per share growth forecast of 11.0%. The 17.2 price-to-earnings ratio is less than the industry average. Analysts on average recommend buying CASC and have for more than 90 days. Their mean price target is $54.33 per share. Shares jumped to a 52-week high of $52.53 following the fourth-quarter results. In the past month though, the share price has pulled back about six bucks to close yesterday at $40.63. The stock has underperformed its industry average, as well as the broader markets, since the beginning of the year.