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Harte-Hanks (HHS) Stock Falls Amid Market Uptick: What Investors Need to Know

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Harte-Hanks (HHS - Free Report) closed at $8.40 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.94% move from the prior day. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 0.08%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.12%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.07%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the marketing company had gained 4.43% over the past month. This has outpaced the Business Services sector's loss of 0.96% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.21% in that time.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Harte-Hanks in its upcoming release. The company plans to announce its earnings on August 8, 2024. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.06, indicating a 25% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $46.6 million, down 2.43% from the year-ago period.

For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $0.58 per share and a revenue of $194.27 million, signifying shifts of +41.46% and +1.45%, respectively, from the last year.

Additionally, investors should keep an eye on any recent revisions to analyst forecasts for Harte-Hanks. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the company's business performance and profit potential.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical 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. Over the past month, there's been a 15.44% fall in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. Harte-Hanks presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Harte-Hanks currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.75. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.38, which means Harte-Hanks is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that HHS has a PEG ratio of 1.23 right now. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Advertising and Marketing industry stood at 2.05 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Advertising and Marketing industry is part of the Business Services sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 176, which puts it in the bottom 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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