Astrana Health, Inc. ASTH shares soared 7.3% in the last trading session to close at $49.81. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 25.7% gain over the past four weeks.
Astrana Health has been showing a strong uptrend since February. The trend is supported by its strong financial performance. The company recorded 56% growth in sales during the first quarter, along with 82% growth in EBITDA and 372% growth in free cash flow. Barclays upgraded it to Overweight, citing a material improvement in the outlook for value-based care in recent weeks, driven by stabilizing cost trends and a more favorable 2027 Medicare Advantage rate outcome. This is also evident from the latest Zacks Consensus Estimate, which shows another strong quarterly result. ASTH is expected to release its second-quarter 2026 earnings on Aug. 6.
This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.33 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +73.7%. Revenues are expected to be $980.9 million, up 49.8% 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 Astrana Health, Inc., 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 ASTH 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 >>>>
Astrana Health, Inc. belongs to the Zacks Medical - Outpatient and Home Healthcare industry. Another stock from the same industry, U.S. Physical Therapy USPH, closed the last trading session 3.8% higher at $71.31. Over the past month, USPH has returned 9.9%.
U.S. Physical Therapy's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.85. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +4.9%. U.S. Physical Therapy currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3.
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Astrana Health, Inc. (ASTH): Free Stock Analysis Report
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).