Hanger shares rallied 5.1% in the last trading session to close at $26.21. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 5.4% gain over the past four weeks.

The stock is likely gaining on market expectation that the company's business volumes will show a recovery through its Patient Care segment in the to-be-reported quarter.

Analysts are hoping to see green shoots in earnings growth during the to-be-reported quarter. This is all the more significant as the company was one of the worst affected by the pandemic and now is limping back to normalcy with the COVID-19 vaccine rollout and a gradual subsidence in case count.

Price and Consensus

This orthotic and prosthetic company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.10 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +64.3%. Revenues are expected to be $244.71 million, up 4.7% 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 Hanger, 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 HNGR 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 >>>>