silica stocks SLCA came out with quarterly earnings of $0.32 per share, beating Zacks consensus estimate of $0.19 per share. That compares to a loss of $0.12 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for one-off effects.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 68.42%. A quarter ago, this commercial silica maker was expected to post a loss of $0.13 per share when it actually posted a loss of $0.02, which surprised 84.62% delivered.

In the past four quarters, the company has beaten consensus EPS estimates four times.

Silica Holdings, which belongs to the Zacks Mining – Miscellaneous industry, reported sales of $388.51 million for the quarter ended June 2022, beating Zacks’ consensus estimate by 12.33%. This compares to annual sales of $317.3 million. The company has beaten consensus sales estimates twice in the past four quarters.

The sustainability of the immediate price action of the stock based on the recently released numbers and future earnings expectations will depend primarily on management’s comments on the earnings release.

Silica Holdings shares are up about 30.2% year-to-date, while the S&P 500 is down -14.6%.

What’s next for Silica Holdings?

Although Silica Holdings has outperformed the market so far this year, the question for investors is: where is the stock going?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable metric that can help investors answer this question is the company’s earnings outlook. This includes not only the current consensus earnings expectations for the quarter(s) ahead, but also how those expectations have changed recently.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between short-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions themselves or rely on a proven rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing earning power…