Earnings Estimates Rising for Ponce Financial (PDLB): Will It Gain?

While "the trend is your friend" when it comes to short-term investing or trading, timing entries into the trend is a key determinant of success. And increasing the odds of success by making sure the sustainability of a trend isn't easy.

The trend often reverses before exiting the trade, leading to a short-term capital loss for investors. So, for a profitable trade, one should confirm factors such as sound fundamentals, positive earnings estimate revisions, etc. that could keep the momentum in the stock alive.

Investors looking to make a profit from stocks that are currently on the move may find our "Recent Price Strength" screen pretty useful. This predefined screen comes handy in spotting stocks that are on an uptrend backed by strength in their fundamentals, and trading in the upper portion of their 52-week high-low range, which is usually an indicator of bullishness.

There are several stocks that passed through the screen and

Ponce Financial

(PDLB) is one of them. Here are the key reasons why this stock is a solid choice for "trend" investing.

A solid price increase over a period of 12 weeks reflects investors' continued willingness to pay more for the potential upside in a stock. PDLB is quite a good fit in this regard, gaining 17.9% over this period.

However, it's not enough to look at the price change for around three months, as it doesn't reflect any trend reversal that might have happened in a shorter time frame. It's important for a potential winner to maintain the price trend. A price increase of 1.6% over the past four weeks ensures that the trend is still in place for the stock of this holding company of Ponce Bank.

Moreover, PDLB is currently trading at 86.8% of its 52-week High-Low Range, hinting that it can be on the verge of a breakout.

Looking at the fundamentals, the stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), which means it is in the top 20% of more than the 4,000 stocks that we rank based on trends in earnings estimate revisions and EPS surprises -- the key factors that impact a stock's near-term price movements.

The Zacks Rank stock-rating system, which uses four factors related to earnings estimates to classify stocks into five groups, ranging from Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) to Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive externally-audited track record, with Zacks Rank #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here

Another factor that confirms the company's fundamental strength is its Average Broker Recommendation of #1 (Strong Buy). This indicates that the brokerage community is highly optimistic about the stock's near-term price performance.

So, the price trend in PDLB may not reverse anytime soon.

In addition to PDLB, there are several other stocks that currently pass through our "Recent Price Strength" screen. You may consider investing in them and start looking for the newest stocks that fit these criteria.

This is not the only screen that could help you find your next winning stock pick. Based on your personal investing style, you may choose from over 45 Zacks Premium Screens that are strategically created to beat the market.

However, keep in mind that the key to a successful stock-picking strategy is to ensure that it produced profitable results in the past. You could easily do that with the help of the Zacks Research Wizard. In addition to allowing you to backtest the effectiveness of your strategy, the program comes loaded with some of our most successful stock-picking strategies.

Click here to sign up for a free trial to the Research Wizard today.

Zacks Investment Research

Ponce Financial (PDLB) came out with quarterly earnings of $0.10 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $0.07 per share. This compares to earnings of $0.12 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 42.86%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this holding company of Ponce Bank would post earnings of $0.01 per share when it actually produced earnings of $0.14, delivering a surprise of 1,300%.

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

Ponce Financial, which belongs to the Zacks Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry, posted revenues of $20.17 million for the quarter ended September 2024, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 1.89%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $22.17 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three 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.

Ponce Financial shares have added about 17% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 22.3%.

What's Next for Ponce Financial?

While Ponce Financial 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 Ponce Financial: favorable. 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 #2 (Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform 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 $0.07 on $19.9 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $0.39 on $80.4 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, Financial - Miscellaneous Services is currently in the top 35% 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.

Sphere 3D Corp. (ANY), another stock in the same industry, has yet to report results for the quarter ended September 2024.

This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.19 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +50%. The consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days.

Sphere 3D Corp.'s revenues are expected to be $5 million, down 12.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Zacks Investment Research