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The First of Long Island (FLIC) Surges 6.5%: Is This an Indication of Further Gains?

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The First of Long Island (FLIC - Free Report) shares soared 6.5% in the last trading session to close at $10.93. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 6% gain over the past four weeks.

Shares of The First of Long Island rallied for the fourth straight trading session. With the Federal Reserve keeping an eye on unemployment reports and cooling inflation numbers, market participants are projecting interest rate cuts as early as during the September FOMC meeting. Thus, this is a positive development for banks that are already reeling under the Fed’s aggressive monetary tightening. As the rates come down, so will banks’ funding costs. Hence, the investors turned bullish on banking sector stocks, driving FLIC higher.

 

This holding company for The First National Bank of Long Island is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.19 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -38.7%. Revenues are expected to be $20.9 million, down 14.8% 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 The First of Long Island, 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 FLIC 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 >>>>

The First of Long Island is a member of the Zacks Banks - Northeast industry. One other stock in the same industry, Equity Bancshares (EQBK - Free Report) , finished the last trading session 4.4% higher at $36.76. EQBK has returned 4.6% over the past month.

Equity Bancshares' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.92. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +15%. Equity Bancshares currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).


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