Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) after the company missed the Zacks Consensus Estimate when the last reported on October 31. The company makes ships for the US Navy and while there has been much made of the cost of the Ukraine war, there are calls for the US to curtail military spending.  This idea somehow finds HII in the crosshairs despite its seemingly limited involvement in that situation. This article will look at why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) as it is the Bear of the Day.

Description                       

Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc. engages in the shipbuilding business. It operates through the following business segments: Ingalls, Newport News, and Mission Technologies. The Ingalls segment designs and constructs non-nuclear ships, including amphibious assault ships, expeditionary warfare ships, surface combatants, and national security cutters (NSC). The Newport News segment designs and builds nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and submarines, and the refueling and overhaul and the inactivation of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The Mission Technologies segment includes business groups focused on high-end information technology (IT) and mission-based solutions for DoD, intelligence, and federal civilian customers, life-cycle sustainment services to the U.S. Navy fleet and other maritime customers, unmanned, autonomous systems, and nuclear management and operations and environmental management services for the Department of Energy (DoE), DoD, state and local governments, and private sector companies. The company was founded on August 4, 2010, and is headquartered in Newport News, VA.

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 Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII), I see three beats and one miss of the Zacks Consensus Estimate over the last year. The most recent quarter was a miss with the company posting $2.56 when the consensus was calling for $3.84.  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 $16.59 to $14.31 over the last 60 days. 

The next year has moved from $18.89 to $15.57 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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