Industrial products distributor Applied Industrial (NYSE:AIT) will be announcing earnings results tomorrow morning. Here’s what investors should know.

Applied Industrial missed analysts’ revenue expectations by 2.1% last quarter, reporting revenues of $1.16 billion, flat year on year. It was a slower quarter for the company, with underwhelming earnings guidance for the full year and a miss of analysts’ organic revenue estimates.

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

This quarter, analysts are expecting Applied Industrial’s revenue to decline 1.1% year on year to $1.08 billion, a reversal from the 3.1% increase it recorded in the same quarter last year. Adjusted earnings are expected to come in at $2.26 per share.

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

Looking at Applied Industrial’s peers in the industrial machinery segment, some have already reported their Q3 results, giving us a hint as to what we can expect. Worthington’s revenues decreased 17.5% year on year, missing analysts’ expectations by 13.1%, and 3M reported a revenue decline of 3.2%, in line with consensus estimates. Worthington traded down 5.5% following the results.

Read our full analysis of Worthington’s results here and 3M’s results here.

Investors in the industrial machinery segment have had steady hands going into earnings, with share prices flat over the last month. Applied Industrial is up 1.7% during the same time and is heading into earnings with an average analyst price target of $243.14 (compared to the current share price of $226.23).

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