Crawford & Company (:CRD.B) currently has an Average Broker Rating of 1.33. The ABR rank within the industry stands at 63. This number is based on the 3 sell-side firms polled by Zacks.
Successfully tackling the equity markets may involve owning a wide range of stocks. Some investors may prefer growth stocks while others may opt for value stocks. Having a good mix of both types may help build of solid foundation for the portfolio. Investors may choose stocks in a specific industry that is gaining strength. If the industry is on the rise, the portfolio may be more likely to succeed. Finding companies that are considered leaders in their field may also be on the investor checklist. A company that has a large presence may help ease investor worry, especially in a down market climate. Finding the perfect stocks to add to the portfolio may not always be easy, and in fact it may be quite difficult. Investors may have to lay out goals to help keep things on track for both the short-term and the long haul.
Each brokerage research report carries with it some form of recommendation. The brokerage firms may use different lingo for their rating systems (like saying Outperform instead of Buy), but they can all be properly sorted into our 5 level classification system that is now the industry standard. Each of the 5 classifications has a value associated with it to help compute the ABR.
As the name implies the ABR will show you the Average of Brokerage Recommendations on a given stock. The benefit is that you quickly get a snapshot of where Wall Street stands on a stock without having to read a mountain of research reports.
Broker recommendations are made by brokerage firms (for example, JP Morgan) and are not an outright recommendation to buy or sell a share, but instead give an indication of how the broker thinks the company will perform relative to its sector. Their recommendations are issued over a particular period of time. The recommendations provided in the Research Centre are shown on a 75 day rolling basis. Each brokerage firm has its own way of rating that may make it difficult to compare broker recommendations between the brokerage houses.
For example, at one brokerage “buy” may be the strongest recommendation, while at another “buy” could be second to a “strong buy” rating. The second-highest ratings also have a number of different other names: “accumulate”, “outperform”, “moderate buy” or “overweight”.
Analysts on a consensus basis are expecting that the stock will reach $14 within the year.
Most recently Crawford & Company (:CRD.B) posted quarterly earnings of $0.25 which compared to the sell-side estimates of 0.2. The stock’s 12-month trailing earnings per share stands at $0.73. Shares have moved $4.28 over the past month and more recently, $4.4 over the past week heading into the earnings announcement. There are 3 analyst projections that were taken into consideration from respected brokerage firms.
An important idea when dealing with technical analysis is that historical stock price movements tend to repeat. Technical analysis focuses on chart patterns with the goal of analyzing market movements and defining trends. Charting has been around for many years, and even older methods are considered to be relevant due to the nature of repeating patterns. Certain trends may be easier to spot than others. Technical analysts that spend vast amounts of studying charts and patterns may be more adept at spotting specific trends. Investors may want to employ multiple methods of trend spotting in order to get a more robust spectrum with which to work.
Research analysts are predicting that Crawford & Company (:CRD.B) will report earnings of $0.22 per share when the firm issues their next quarterly report. This is the consensus earnings per share number according to data from Zack’s Research.
Crawford & Company (:CRD.B) closed the last session at $9.26 and sees an average of 40058.35 shares trade hands in each session. The 52-week low of the stock stands at $8.35 while the current level stands at 17.14% of the 52-week High-Low range. Looking further out we can see that the stock has moved -2.94% over the past 12 weeks and -26.27% year to date.
3 analysts rate Crawford & Company a Buy or Strong Buy, which is 100% of all the analyst ratings.
Stock market reversals can occur at any given time. Sometimes, these corrections can provoke ominous forecasts from the investing community. With the market still riding high, it is important to note that market corrections can be common happenings in bull market runs. Investors may use these opportunities to buy some names at discount prices. As we move through earnings season, investors will be watching to see how companies have fared over the last quarter. Investors may want to examine sell-side analyst revisions in the weeks and days prior to the report. Investors and analysts will both be eagerly watching to see if the company can beat expectations.
