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Huntington Bancshares (HBAN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Huntington Bancshares (HBAN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $10.52, moving +0.96% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.31% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.19%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the regional bank holding company had lost 6.55% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's loss of 1.33% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.12% in that time.

Huntington Bancshares will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.35, down 2.78% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.87 billion, up 6.55% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.44 per share and revenue of $7.53 billion. These totals would mark changes of -4% and +3.44%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Huntington Bancshares. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. 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. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.07% lower. Huntington Bancshares is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Huntington Bancshares currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.22. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 7.11, so we one might conclude that Huntington Bancshares is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that HBAN has a PEG ratio of 5.51 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. HBAN's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.81 as of yesterday's close.

The Banks - Midwest industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 238, which puts it in the bottom 6% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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