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Itron (ITRI) Hits 52-Week High: What's Driving the Stock?

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Shares of industrial products maker, Itron, Inc. (ITRI - Free Report) touched a fresh 52-week high of $66.15 on Feb 24, before retracing to close the day at $65.90.

Itron has a market cap of roughly $2.5 billion and the average volume of shares traded in the last three months is around 188.7K. The stock has delivered a solid one-year return of around 64%. The company has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three out of the trailing four quarters, with an average surprise of 30.55%.

Over the past one year, Itron outperformed the Zacks categorized Electronics Testing Equipment industry. The company’s shares gained around 65.4% during this period, compared with roughly 45.4% gain recorded by the industry.


 

Driving Factors

Itron expects the 2016 results to surpass or come in at the high end of its revenue guidance range of $1.95–$2 billion and earnings per share in the range of $2.20–$2.45. The company remains focused on its restructuring strategy as well as product development plans.

Itron, Inc. Price and Consensus

 

Itron, Inc. Price and Consensus | Itron, Inc. Quote

Itron had bookings of $670 million in third-quarter 2016, with growth noted across all segments. The company reported a 12-month backlog of $731 million and total backlog of $1.5 billion during the reported quarter. With the acceleration of smart metering and increasing customer interest in multi-service electric gas and water networks that offer broad IoT applications, Itron is adding high-value projects to its backlog in each quarter.

Itron remains focused on its efforts to drive operational improvement as well as product development and supply chain efficiencies across businesses. Looking ahead, the company’s investments in its OpenWay Riva IoT solution, combined with its ongoing operational discipline, will drive growth and profitability.

Moreover, Itron expects to grow through a combination of new product development, licensing technology, distribution agreements, partnership arrangements and acquisitions.

Itron currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Key Picks

Some better-ranked stocks in the same space include Cognex Corporation (CGNX - Free Report) , Teradyne, Inc. (TER - Free Report) and Applied Optoelectronics, Inc. (AAOI - Free Report) . All of these stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Cognex Corporation has a positive average earnings surprise of 28.40% for the last four quarters. Teradyne generated a positive average earnings surprise of 24.85% over the trailing four quarters. Applied Optoelectronics has delivered an impressive average positive earnings surprise of 116.49% in the past four quarters.

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