Insperity (NSP) is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) after the company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate when the last reported on October 31. The company makes a comprehensive suite of scalable HR solutions.  This article will look at why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) as it is the Bear of the Day.

Description                       

Insperity, Inc. engages in the provision of human resources and business solutions designed to help improve business performance. The firm also offers payroll and employment administration, employee benefits, workers' compensation, government compliance, performance management, and training and development services along with cloud-based human capital management platform. The company was founded by Paul J. Sarvadi in April 1986 and is headquartered in Kingwood, TX.

Earnings History

When I look at a stock, the first thing I do is look to see if the company is beating the number.  This tells me right away where the market’s expectations have been for the company and how management has communicated to the market.  A stock that consistently beats has management communicating expectations to Wall Street that can be achieved.  That is what you want to see.

In the case of Insperity (NSP), I see four consecutive beats of the Zacks Consensus Estimate over the last year. The most recent quarter was a beat with the company posting $0.39 when the consensus was calling for $0.32.  This alone does not make the stock a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and it doesn’t make it a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) either.

The Zacks Rank does care about the earnings history, but it is much more heavily influenced by the movement of earnings estimates.

Earnings Estimates

The Zacks Rank tells us which stocks are seeing earnings estimates move higher or in this case lower.  For HII I see annual estimates moving lower of late.

The current fiscal year consensus number moved lower from $3.57 to $3.54 over the last 60 days. 

The next year has moved from $4.01 to $3.80 over the last 60 days.

Negative movement in earnings estimates like that is why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

It should be noted that a lot of stocks in the Zacks universe are seeing negative earnings estimate revisions.  That means that the stocks that are seeing small but negative earnings estimate revisions are falling to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

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