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Harte-Hanks (HHS) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Harte-Hanks (HHS - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $8.33, moving +0.48% from the previous trading session. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.16%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.14%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.06%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the marketing company had gained 9.22% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's gain of 0.9% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.96% in that time.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Harte-Hanks in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.06, down 25% from the prior-year quarter. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $46.6 million, indicating a 2.43% decline compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $0.58 per share and a revenue of $194.27 million, indicating changes of +41.46% and +1.45%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Harte-Hanks. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 15.44% lower. Harte-Hanks is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Harte-Hanks has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.42 right now. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 13.19.

It's also important to note that HHS currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.2. The PEG ratio bears resemblance to the frequently used P/E ratio, but this parameter also includes the company's expected earnings growth trajectory. Advertising and Marketing stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Advertising and Marketing industry is part of the Business Services sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 160, placing it within the bottom 37% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.


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