Banco Itau (ITUB) Stock Jumps 5.4%: Will It Continue to Soar?

Banco Itau (ITUB) shares ended the last trading session 5.4% higher at $8.53. 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 5.3% gain over the past four weeks.

The company’s shares moved sharply higher as supportive shareholder-return measures and strength across major Brazilian banks boosted investor sentiment. Its regular interest-on-capital payments, including its September distribution scheduled for Oct. 1, reinforced confidence in the company’s shareholder-return strategy. Adding to the positive momentum, renewed strength across Brazil’s financial sector is supporting investor sentiment around ITUB.

This financial holding company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.22 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +22.2%. Revenues are expected to be $9.53 billion, up 12.6% 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 Banco Itau, 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 ITUB 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 >>>>

Banco Itau belongs to the Zacks Banks - Foreign industry. Another stock from the same industry, Erste Group Bank AG (EBKDY), closed the last trading session 1.7% lower at $68.5. Over the past month, EBKDY has returned -1.7%.

For Erste Group Bank, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed +0.6% over the past month to $1.58. This represents a change of +22.5% from what the company reported a year ago. Erste Group Bank currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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