Stantec (STN Quick QuoteSTN - Free Report) shares ended the last trading session 9.4% higher at $54.98. The jump came on an impressive volume with a higher-than-average number of shares changing hands in the session. This compares to the stock's 3.1% gain over the past four weeks.

This increased investor optimism can be attributed to the acquisition news of the North America and Asia Pacific engineering and consulting groups (the Select Assets) from Cardno Limited for $500 million in cash.

Price and Consensus

Stantec Inc. price-consensus-chart | Stantec Inc. Quote

This engineering firm is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.54 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +17.4%. Revenues are expected to be $779.52 million, up 13.3% 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 Stantec, 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 STN going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank 2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>