HireQuest, Inc. (HQI) shares ended the last trading session 6.1% higher at $17.73. The jump came on an impressive volume with a higher-than-average number of shares changing hands in the session. This compares to the stock's 11.3% loss over the past four weeks.
The stock is benefiting from optimism ahead of its third-quarter earnings release, improving profitability, the strength of its asset-light franchise model and growing staffing opportunities driven by domestic manufacturing and reshoring trends.
This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.24 per share in its upcoming report, which represents no change from the year-ago quarter. Revenues are expected to be $8.2 million, down 3.5% 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 HireQuest, 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 HQI 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 >>>>
HireQuest belongs to the Zacks Staffing Firms industry. Another stock from the same industry, Korn/Ferry (KFY), closed the last trading session 2.5% higher at $78.03. Over the past month, KFY has returned 7.1%.
Korn/Ferry's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.36. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +2.3%. Korn/Ferry currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).