Huron Consulting (HURN) shares rallied 7.1% in the last trading session to close at $98.73. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 13.8% loss over the past four weeks.
The stock is benefiting from strong first-quarter earnings, reaffirmed full-year guidance, the strategic expansion of its AI-enabled healthcare business through the RelateCare acquisition, and favorable Wall Street sentiment.
This consulting company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $2.13 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +12.7%. Revenues are expected to be $447.28 million, up 11.1% from the year-ago quarter.
Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.
For Huron Consulting, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on HURN going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.
The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>
Huron Consulting is a member of the Zacks Consulting Services industry. One other stock in the same industry, Information Services Group (III), finished the last trading session 3.5% higher at $4.2. III has returned -10.4% over the past month.
For ISG, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.09. This represents a change of +12.5% from what the company reported a year ago. ISG currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).