Primis Financial (FRST) Surges 5.1%: Is This an Indication of Further Gains?

Primis Financial (FRST) shares soared 5.1% in the last trading session to close at $11.59. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 2.5% gain over the past four weeks.

Primis Financial stock witnessed a price rise, driven by strength in its hybrid growth strategy that blends a strong community banking presence with high-yielding niche business lines. The bank’s core strength lies in its established footprint of 24 branches across Virginia and Maryland, contributing to substantial deposit growth.

Its deep customer relationships, combined with localized decision-making and superior service, enable competitive lending and treasury solutions for small and mid-sized businesses. This traditional foundation supports scalable growth initiatives while maintaining asset quality and robust underwriting practices. Primis Financial enhances profitability through specialized divisions like Panacea Financial and Primis Mortgage Company. It also excels in digital innovation, growing digital deposits and deploying tools like the V1BE delivery app to expand customer access without branch expansion. 

This holding company for Sonabank is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.32 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +149.2%. Revenues are expected to be $36.7 million, down 6.6% from the year-ago quarter.

Earnings and revenue growth expectations certainly give a good sense of the potential strength in a stock, but empirical research shows that trends in earnings estimate revisions are strongly correlated with near-term stock price movements.

For Primis Financial, 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 FRST 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 >>>>

Primis Financial belongs to the Zacks Financial - Miscellaneous Services industry. Another stock from the same industry, Axos Financial (AX), closed the last trading session 3% higher at $84.03. Over the past month, AX has returned 3.3%.

For Axos Financial, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed +1.8% over the past month to $2.04. This represents a change of +12.1% from what the company reported a year ago. Axos Financial currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

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

Zacks Investment Research