Earnings Preview for Black Box (BBOX)

Black Box (NASDAQ: BBOX) will be reporting its fiscal fourth-quarter 2011 results tomorrow, May 12, after the closing bell. Analysts are looking for the tech company to post earnings of $0.83 per share on revenue of $265 million. That is up from $0.78 per share and $240.8 million in the same period of last year. Note that the earnings estimate is unchanged from 60 days ago.

Black Box provides network infrastructure services for communication systems. Its offerings include modems, routers, switches and testing equipment, as well as cabinets, cables and training materials. The company sells its products to corporations, small organizations, schools and government agencies worldwide, but most of its revenue is generated in North America. Back in February, Black Box announced the opening of a new office in South Korea.

For the full year, analysts expect to see per-share earnings of $3.36 (up 11.0% from a year ago) on revenues of $1.1 billion (up 12.1%). Black Box's earnings have topped consensus estimates for the past ten quarters.

Shares are trading at 10.5 times earnings estimates. The dividend yield is 0.7%. The consensus recommendation (of two analysts) is to buy BBOX. But the share price is down about 9% year to date. While the stock has underperformed the broader markets, its performance has been in line with its industry.