Dj Officer Hickey Sells 5000 Of Bowman Consulting Group Ltd >Bwmn

US stocks were treading water ahead of the opening bell Thursday as investors parse initial jobless claims figures and the latest producer price index reading.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 0.2%, S&P 500 futures were off 0.05%, and Nasdaq futures were edging 0.1% lower.

Oil prices were moving higher, with front-month global benchmarks North Sea Brent crude up 1.1% and US West Texas Intermediate crude rising 1.1%.

Initial jobless claims, which track how many people filed for unemployment insurance for the first time during the past week, fell to 217,000 from 221,000 the previous week and below the 224,000 expected by forecasters, according to Bloomberg.

The producer price index, which gauges the change in input prices of raw, semi-finished, or finished goods and services, rose to 0.2% in October from 0.1% in September, and matching analyst forecasts, according to Bloomberg.

And coming out later in the morning are the Energy Information Administration's crude oil Inventories, which tracks the weekly change in the number of barrels of commercial crude oil held by US firms. Inventories are expected to fall to 1 million from 2.215 million the previous month, according to Bloomberg.

In other world markets, Japan's Nikkei was off 0.5%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng tumbled nearly 2%, and China's Shanghai Composite fell 1.7%. Meanwhile in Europe's early afternoon session, the UK's FTSE 100 was rising 0.1%, while Germany's DAX 30 was climbing 1.5%, France's CAC 40 was climbing 1.3%, and Spain's IBEX 35 was climbing nearly 1%.

In equities, shares of BTC Digital jumped 43%, piling on to a 68% gain the previous session. Quantum Computing's stock surged 31%, after soaring 93% in Wednesday's trading session. Shares of Gaxos.ai advanced 55% after the company's board of directors approved Thursday the purchase of up to $1 million in Bitcoin. BTCS Inc.'s stock was up 26% after it reported Wednesday higher Q3 revenue from a year earlier. And shares of Bowman Consulting Group climbed nearly 10% following a 2% loss on Wednesday.

On the losing side, shares of Nuvectis Pharma plunged 54% after it reported data Thursday from its phase 1b trial to evaluate NXP800 in participants. Digital Brands Group shares fell 28%, eating into a 41% gain the previous session. First United Corporation (FUNC) dropped 21% after marginal loss on Wednesday. Calidi Biotherapeutics tumbled 20% after surging 60% on Wednesday. And shares of Harrow were down 18% after it reported overnight lower-than-expected Q3 total revenue.

Bowman Consulting (BWMN) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.30 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.44 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.34 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of -31.82%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this professional services firm would post earnings of $0.27 per share when it actually produced a loss of $0.03, delivering a surprise of -111.11%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates just once.

Bowman Consulting, which belongs to the Zacks Business - Services industry, posted revenues of $113.93 million for the quarter ended September 2024, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.51%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $94.43 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates two times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Bowman Consulting shares have lost about 37.5% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 21.2%.

What's Next for Bowman Consulting?

While Bowman Consulting has underperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Bowman Consulting: mixed. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to perform in line with the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $0.38 on $110.37 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.92 on $424.3 million in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Business - Services is currently in the top 23% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Everi Holdings (EVRI), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended September 2024.

This cash access products company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.16 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -63.6%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 1.3% higher over the last 30 days to the current level.

Everi Holdings' revenues are expected to be $199.13 million, down 3.6% from the year-ago quarter.

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