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Harte-Hanks (HHS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Harte-Hanks (HHS - Free Report) closed at $11.21, marking a +0.72% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.06%. At the same time, the Dow added 2.8%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.18%.

Coming into today, shares of the marketing company had lost 22.44% in the past month. In that same time, the Business Services sector lost 8.85%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.15%.

Harte-Hanks will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Harte-Hanks is projected to report earnings of $0.41 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 21.15%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $50.88 million, up 2.57% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.70 per share and revenue of $200.98 million. These totals would mark changes of -45.16% and +3.28%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Harte-Hanks. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Harte-Hanks currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Investors should also note Harte-Hanks's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 6.55. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.68.

It is also worth noting that HHS currently has a PEG ratio of 0.55. 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. Advertising and Marketing stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.18 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Advertising and Marketing industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 157, which puts it in the bottom 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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