Materion (MTRN) shares ended the last trading session 3.5% higher at $100.43. 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 9.6% loss over the past four weeks.

An analyst at Seaport Global Securities maintained a Buy rating on the MTRN stock despite lowering its target price from $150.00 to $135.00.

Materion has recently revised its earnings per share forecast for 2024 to a range of $5.20-5.40 due to lower-than-expected incoming order rates for the second half of 2024. MTRN, however, expects to deliver an EBITDA margin above 20% for the second half, driven by cost-reduction initiatives and lower incentive comp.

The analyst at Seaport believes that MTRN can show some sequential improvement in the fourth quarter of 2024 and momentum into 2025 from key markets including semiconductor, aerospace & defense and consumer electronics (including the precision clad strip application).

Materion recently appointed Jason Moore as the President of its Precision Optics business segment. The segment produces customized optical and thin-film coatings and components that enable advances across several megatrend-aligned industries including space and defense, life sciences, industrial, semiconductor and automotive.

This supplier of engineered materials to technology companies is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.41 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +1.4%. Revenues are expected to be $444.35 million, up 10.2% 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 Materion, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has been revised 5.9% lower over the last 30 days to the current level. And a negative trend in earnings estimate revisions doesn't usually translate into price appreciation. So, make sure to keep an eye on MTRN 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 >>>>

Materion belongs to the Zacks Mining - Miscellaneous industry. Another stock from the same industry, Cleveland-Cliffs (CLF), closed the last trading session 1.2% lower at $12.80. Over the past month, CLF has returned 8.1%.

Cleveland-Cliffs' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed -23.1% over the past month to -$0.28. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -151.9%. Cleveland-Cliffs currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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