Strength Seen in Core Laboratories (CLB): Can Its 6.0% Jump Turn into More Strength?

Core Laboratories (CLB) shares ended the last trading session 6% higher at $10.95. The jump came on an impressive volume with a higher-than-average number of shares changing hands in the session. This compares to the stock's 16.6% loss over the past four weeks.

Core Laboratories’ share price surged yesterday as global oil prices rebounded on the back of renewed optimism over U.S.-China trade talks, with President Donald Trump confirming plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping and both countries expressing readiness to negotiate, which helped reverse prior selloffs and provided a lift to the broad energy sector. Additionally, oil benchmarks such as Brent and WTI saw gains of nearly 1% after sharp declines, while positive data showing increased Chinese crude imports, stable OPEC demand forecasts, and hopes for sustained peace in the Middle East further buoyed market sentiment, combining to improve the outlook for oilfield service companies like Core Laboratories and drive demand for their reservoir and production enhancement solutions.

This energy services company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.18 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -28%. Revenues are expected to be $127.51 million, down 5.1% 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 Core Laboratories, 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 CLB 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 >>>>

Core Laboratories is part of the Zacks Oil and Gas - Field Services industry. FMC Technologies (FTI), another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 0.6% higher at $36. FTI has returned -10.2% in the past month.

FMC Technologies' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed -0.5% over the past month to $0.65. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +1.6%. FMC Technologies currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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