Itron Hits 52-Week High On Solid Q2 Results, Upbeat View

Shares of Itron, Inc. (NASDAQ:ITRI) touched a 52-week high of $54.23 on Sep 7. However, the stock closed the day’s trading a bit lower at $54.18. This new high came on the back of the company’s upbeat second-quarter 2016 results and a favorable outlook for the year.

Itron has a market cap of roughly $2.07 billion. Average volume of shares traded over the last three months is roughly 209K. The stock has delivered a solid one-year return of around 88% and year-to-date return of roughly 50%. The company has beaten the Zacks Consensus Estimate in two out of the trailing four quarters, with an average surprise of 16.36%.

Driving Factors

Itron’s shares gained since the company reported its second-quarter 2016 results on Sep 1. It recorded adjusted earnings of 65 cents per share, as against a loss of 39 cents a share recorded in the year-ago quarter. Revenues also jumped 9% year over year to $513 million in the reported quarter.

Itron Price and Consensus

Itron Price and Consensus | Quote

Itron projects 2016 revenues to be $1.95−$2 billion and full-year EPS in the band of $2.20−$2.45. The company remains focused on its ongoing efforts to drive operational improvements as well as product development and supply chain efficiencies across businesses.

Accordingly, the company announced new restructuring projects to further reduce expenses through streamlining global operations. The 2016 projects, which will begin immediately, are expected to be substantially completed by the end of 2018 and generate annualized savings of around $40 million thereafter.

Itron expects to grow through a combination of new product development, licensing technology, distribution agreements, partnership arrangements and acquisitions. It will also benefit from accelerated momentum in smart grid development, which will create additional opportunity for innovative solutions.

Moreover, solid execution of the company’s strategic initiatives and incremental operational improvements across all segments will drive growth.

Itron currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks in the sector are Cognex Corp. (NASDAQ:CGNX) , Benchmark Electronics Inc. (NYSE:BHE) and Applied Materials, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMAT) . All the three stocks sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

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