Plumas Bancorp (PLBC) Moves 5.5% Higher: Will This Strength Last?

Plumas Bancorp (PLBC) shares soared 5.5% in the last trading session to close at $46.92. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 3.7% gain over the past four weeks.

Shares of Plumas Bancorp rallied for the fourth consecutive trading session yesterday. The completion of its merger deal with Cornerstone Community Bancorp turned the investors bullish on the stock. The transaction combined Plumas Bank's advanced technology and business solutions with Cornerstone's deep local expertise. The combined company will likely have almost $2.3 billion in total assets and 19 full-service banking branches in 11 counties in Northern California and Nevada. 

This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.20 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +5.3%. Revenues are expected to be $20.95 million, up 1.7% 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 Plumas Bancorp, 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 PLBC 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 >>>>

Plumas Bancorp is part of the Zacks Banks - West industry. CVB Financial (CVBF), another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 3.6% higher at $20.51. CVBF has returned 7.6% in the past month.

For CVB Financial, the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed +0.7% over the past month to $0.35. This represents a change of -2.8% from what the company reported a year ago. CVB Financial currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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

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