Saratoga Investment (SAR Quick QuoteSAR - Free Report) came out with quarterly earnings of $1.33 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.94 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.08 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 41.49%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this business development company would post earnings of $0.97 per share when it actually produced earnings of $1.05, delivering a surprise of 8.25%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates two times.

Saratoga Investment, which belongs to the Zacks Financial - SBIC & Commercial Industry industry, posted revenues of $43 million for the quarter ended August 2024, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 16.75%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $35.51 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates four times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Saratoga Investment shares have lost about 10.1% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 19.4%.

What's Next for Saratoga Investment?

While Saratoga Investment has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Saratoga Investment: mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.91 on $36.4 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $3.60 on $147.46 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Financial - SBIC & Commercial Industry is currently in the bottom 11% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

One other stock from the same industry, Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund (MSDL Quick QuoteMSDL - Free Report) , is yet to report results for the quarter ended September 2024.

This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.65 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -7.1%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 1.6% lower over the last 30 days to the current level.

Morgan Stanley Direct Lending Fund's revenues are expected to be $107.55 million, up 13.9% from the year-ago quarter.