A prudent investment decision involves buying well-performing stocks at the right time while selling those that are at risk. A rise in share price and strong fundamentals signal a stock’s bullish run.
FTI Consulting, Inc. FCN has performed extremely well in the past year and has the potential to sustain the momentum in the near term. Consequently, if you haven’t taken advantage of its share price appreciation yet, it’s time you add the stock to your portfolio.
What Makes it an Attractive Pick?
An Outperformer: A glimpse of its price trend reveals that the stock has had an impressive run on the bourse in the past year. Shares of FTI Consulting havereturned a massive 81.4%, which compares favorably with the industry’s gain of 24.6%.
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Solid Zacks Rank: FTI Consulting currently carries a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). Our research shows that stocks with a Zacks Rank #1 or 2 (Buy) offer the attractive investment opportunities for investors. Thus, the company appears to be a compelling investment proposition at the moment.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Northward Estimate Revisions: The direction of estimate revisions serves as an important pointer when it comes to the price of a stock. Over the last 60 days, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for 2018 earnings increased 4.7%. Estimates for 2019 also increased 4.7%.
Positive Earnings Surprise History: FTI Consulting has an impressive earnings surprise history. Its earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the previous four quarters, delivering an average positive earnings surprise of 31.9%.
Strong Growth Prospects: The Zacks Consensus Estimate for current quarter earnings is pegged at 63 cents, reflecting year-over-year growth of 57.5%. Moreover, earnings are expected to register 14.2% and 9.1% growth, respectively, in 2018 and 2019.
Growth Factors: We appreciate FTI Consulting’s potential to club diverse issues like damage assessment, accounting, economics, statistics, finance and industry under a single platform. Further, FTI Consulting continues to pursue opportunities in areas such as business transformation services, transaction advisory business, restructuring, retail, construction, data and analytics, cyber business, information governance and international arbitration. This makes it an excellent partner for clients all over the world dealing with multiple issues.
Notably, the company serves a wide range of clients which includes global Fortune 500 companies, FTSE 100 companies, global financial institutions, banks, and local, state and national governments and agencies in the United States and other countries.
We believe FTI Consulting’s international operations help expand its geographic footprint and contribute to top-line growth. In 2017, the company earned almost 30% of its revenues from its international businesses.
In first-quarter 2018, the company witnessed double-digit percentage revenue growth in EMEA, Asia Pacific and Latin America on a year-over-year basis. The industrial and geographical diversification of its customer base (throughout the United States and internationally) helps mitigate the risk of incurring material losses.
We are also impressed with FTI Consulting’s shareholder-friendly moves of returning value to shareholders in the form of share repurchases. In 2017, the company repurchased shares worth $168 million at an average price of $35.94 per share.As of Dec 31, 2017, it had approximately $113.3 million available for stock repurchases under its $300 million share repurchase authorization. In first-quarter 2018, FTI Consulting repurchased worth $14.2 million. As of Mar 31, 2018, $99.1 million were available for share buyback. Such moves indicate the company’s commitment to create value for shareholders and underline its confidence in its business.
Other Stocks to Consider
Some other top-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector include Accenture plc ACN, NV5 Global NVEE and Bureau Veritas S. A. BVRDF. All the stocks carry a Zacks Rank #2.
The long-term expected earnings per share growth rates for Accenture, NV5 Global and Bureau Veritas are 10%, 20% and 8%, respectively.
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