Alta Equipment ALTG shares ended the last trading session 15.8% higher at $7.54. 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 10% gain over the past four weeks.

Alta Equipment’s rally is largely driven by optimism regarding rising customer demand, a favorable pricing environment, an increase in rental, new & used equipment and parts sales. Also, the acquisition of a distributor of market-leading construction and turf equipment, Burris, bodes well for the company.

This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.22 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of -210%. Revenues are expected to be $481.09 million, up 3.2% 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 Alta Equipment, 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 ALTG 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 >>>>

Alta Equipment is a member of the Zacks Manufacturing - General Industrial industry. One other stock in the same industry, Ferguson plc (FERG), finished the last trading session 4.4% higher at $210.92. FERG has returned 3.8% over the past month.

Ferguson plc's consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed -0.5% over the past month to $2.60. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -1.9%. Ferguson plc currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

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