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Crawford (CRD.A) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Crawford (CRD.A - Free Report) closed at $10.73 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.13% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.53% loss on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the provider of claims management services to insurance companies had gained 6.1% over the past month, outpacing the Business Services sector's gain of 4.32% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.86% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Crawford as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.26, up 73.33% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $313.3 million, up 6.8% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.13 per share and revenue of $1.27 billion, which would represent changes of +61.43% and +7.1%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Crawford. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Crawford is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Crawford is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 9.39. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.87.

The Business - Services industry is part of the Business Services sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 48, putting it in the top 20% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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