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The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Booz Allen Hamilton, FLEETCOR, Rollins and Mastercard

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For Immediate Release

Chicago, IL – January 25, 2024 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp. (BAH - Free Report) , FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. , Rollins, Inc. (ROL - Free Report) and Mastercard Inc. (MA - Free Report) .

Here are highlights from Wednesday’s Analyst Blog:

4 Service Firms Poised to Beat Estimates This Earnings Season

The Zacks Business Services sector has had a strong fourth quarter of 2023, driven by an improving global macroeconomic environment, strong demand for services, improving supply chains and strong digital adoption. However, labor market constraints and contracting economic activity in the manufacturing sector remained headwinds.

Per the latest Earnings Trend report, earnings of S&P 500 members of the business services sector that have reported results this season grew 6% year over year on 3.3% revenue growth, with 100% of the companies beating EPS estimates and 33.3% topping sales projections.

Total quarterly earnings of the S&P 500 members of the sector are currently anticipated to display 1.9% year-on-year growth. Revenues are likely to register a 4.8% rise.

A handful of companies from the sector, like Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp., FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc., Rollins, Inc. and Mastercard Inc., are expected to beat estimates in the ongoing reporting cycle.

Let us discuss the factors that are likely to have played a key role in shaping the performance of business services companies in the quarter.

Factors Influencing Q4 Results

With service activities in the pink, the demand for business services rose steadily in the quarter. The Services PMI, measured by the Institute for Supply Management, had stayed above the 50% mark for 12 consecutive months by the end of the fourth quarter.

Sector-specific factors that acted as tailwinds in the quarter are the essentiality of certain services like waste management, the rise in demand for risk mitigation and consulting services, increased expertise in improving operational efficiency and lower costs, successful work-from-home models and digital transformation.

Services pertaining to health care & social assistance, professional, scientific & technical; accommodation & food, utilities, retail trade, transportation & warehousing, and public administration stayed healthy.

Stocks Poised to Beat This Season

With the existence of several players in the sector, finding the right business services stocks that have the potential to beat on earnings can be daunting. Our proprietary methodology, however, makes it fairly simple.

You could narrow down the list of choices by looking at stocks that have the combination of a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold), and a positive Earnings ESP. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.

Earnings ESP is our proprietary methodology for determining stocks that have the best chances to surprise in their next earnings announcement. It is the percentage difference between the Most Accurate Estimate and the Zacks Consensus Estimate.

Our research shows that for stocks with this combination, the chance of an earnings surprise is as high as 70%.

Here are our picks.

Booz Allen: The company is a provider of management and technology consulting, analytics, digital solutions, engineering, cyber services and mission operations, to governments, corporations and not-for-profit organizations.

Booz Allen is scheduled to report its third-quarter fiscal 2024 results on Jan 26. It has an Earnings ESP of +7.65% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

The consensus mark for revenues in the to-be-reported quarter is pegged at $2.5 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 11.1%. The consensus mark for the bottom line is pegged at $1.13 per share, indicating an increase of 5.6% on a year-over-year basis.

Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation price-eps-surprise | Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation Quote

FLEETCOR: The company operates as a business payments company.

FLEETCOR is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter 2023 results on Feb 7. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.37% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #2.

The consensus mark for revenues in the to-be-reported quarter is pegged at $968.7 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 9.6%. The consensus mark for the bottom line is pegged at $4.47 per share, indicating 10.6% growth on a year-over-year basis.

FleetCor Technologies, Inc. price-eps-surprise | FleetCor Technologies, Inc. Quote

Rollins: The company is a provider of pest and wildlife control services.

Rollins is set to report its fourth-quarter 2023 results on Feb 14. It has an Earnings ESP of +2.44% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for ROL’s top line in the to-be-reported quarter is pegged at $750.1 million, indicating year-over-year growth of 13.4%. The consensus mark for the bottom line is pegged at 21 cents per share, indicating 23.5% growth on a year-over-year basis.

Rollins, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Rollins, Inc. Quote

Mastercard: The payment-technology giant is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter 2023 results on Jan 31. It has an Earnings ESP of +0.39% and currently carries a Zacks Rank #3.

The consensus mark for revenues in the to-be-reported quarter is pegged at $6.5 billion, indicating year-over-year growth of 11%. The consensus mark for the bottom line is pegged at $3.08 per share, indicating 16.2% growth on a year-over-year basis.

Mastercard Incorporated price-eps-surprise | Mastercard Incorporated Quote

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Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.


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