Strength Seen in Utz Brands (UTZ): Can Its 6.8% Jump Turn into More Strength?

Utz Brands UTZ shares ended the last trading session 6.8% higher at $7.71. 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 3.7% loss over the past four weeks.Utz Brands’ recent rally appears driven by confidence in its innovation pipeline, expanding distribution and disciplined execution. Momentum in its Power Four brands, California expansion, growing household penetration, stronger marketing investments and productivity initiatives are reinforcing confidence in its long-term growth prospects.This company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $0.18 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +5.9%. Revenues are expected to be $374.95 million, up 2.3% 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 Utz Brands, 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 UTZ 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 >>>>Utz Brands belongs to the Zacks Food - Miscellaneous industry. Another stock from the same industry, Darling Ingredients DAR, closed the last trading session 1.1% lower at $52.5. Over the past month, DAR has returned -11%.Darling's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.26. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of +1300%. Darling currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).Beyond Nvidia: AI's Second Wave Is HereThe AI revolution has already minted millionaires. But the stocks everyone knows about aren't likely to keep delivering the biggest profits. AI’s second wave is moving from infrastructure to implementation and these companies are at the forefront of this transition, positioned to become what Amazon and Google were to the internet era.See Stocks Now >>This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).Zacks Investment ResearchWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Zacks