Harte-Hanks (HHS) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
Harte-Hanks (HHS) closed the most recent trading day at $11.96, moving -1.64% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.69%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.64%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.2%.
Coming into today, shares of the marketing company had lost 29.51% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector lost 12.24%, while the S&P 500 lost 9.94%.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Harte-Hanks as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.41, down 21.15% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $50.88 million, up 2.57% from the prior-year quarter.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.70 per share and revenue of $200.98 million, which would represent changes of -45.16% and +3.28%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Harte-Hanks should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. Harte-Hanks is holding a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) right now.
Looking at its valuation, Harte-Hanks is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 7.15. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.09, which means Harte-Hanks is trading at a discount to the group.
Investors should also note that HHS has a PEG ratio of 0.6 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Advertising and Marketing industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.34 as of yesterday's close.
The Advertising and Marketing industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts it in the top 40% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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