The Trade Desk (TTD Quick QuoteTTD - Free Report) shares soared 3.8% in the last trading session to close at $678.94. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 23.4% loss over the past four weeks.

The increase in share price can be attributed to an optimistic note from KeyBanc Capital Markets’ analyst Justin Patterson. Markedly, the Keybanc analyst upgraded The Trade Desk from Sector Weight to Overweight and established a price target of $851.

The Trade Desk is benefiting from the momentum in programmatic ad buying. Further, the emergence of digital content is driving the usage of the company’s inventory across all forms of Connected-TV.
 

Price and Consensus

This digital-advertising platform operator is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.82 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -8.9%. Revenues are expected to be $216.45 million, up 34.7% from the year-ago quarter.

While earnings and revenue growth expectations are important in evaluating the potential strength in a stock, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

For The Trade Desk, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 22.5% higher over the last 30 days to the current level. And a positive trend in earnings estimate revision usually translates into price appreciation. So, make sure to keep an eye on TTD 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 >>>>