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Strength Seen in Financial Institutions (FISI): Can Its 5.6% Jump Turn into More Strength?

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Financial Institutions (FISI - Free Report) shares rallied 5.6% in the last trading session to close at $20.69. 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 10% gain over the past four weeks.

Shares of Financial Institutions rallied for the fifth consecutive trading day. The Federal Reserve signaled end of the current rate cycle and kept the interest rates unchanged at 22-year high of 5.25-5.5% at the end of two-day FOMC meeting. Further, the central bank indicated three interest rate cuts by 2024-end. These developments turned investor sentiments bullish on bank stocks as high funding costs being faced by the industry players will somewhat come down next year, thus supporting net interest income and margin. Hence, the FISI stock moved higher.

This holding company for Five Star Bank is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.73 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -4%. Revenues are expected to be $50.29 million, down 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 Financial Institutions, 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 FISI 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 >>>>

Financial Institutions belongs to the Zacks Banks - Northeast industry. Another stock from the same industry, Business First (BFST - Free Report) , closed the last trading session 4.7% higher at $22.97. Over the past month, BFST has returned 1.7%.

Business First's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $0.60. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -9.1%. Business First currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).


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