Park National (PRK) shares rallied 4.6% in the last trading session to close at $161.56. This move can be attributable to notable volume with a higher number of shares being traded than in a typical session. This compares to the stock's 15.1% gain over the past four weeks.

Shares of Park National rallied for the seventh straight trading session and hit a 52-week high of $161.93. Encouraging inflation numbers and a rising unemployment rate are giving confidence to the Federal Reserve that prices will eventually come down toward the 2% target. So, market participants are projecting interest rate cuts as early as during the September FOMC meeting.

This is a positive development for banks that have been reeling under the Fed’s aggressive monetary tightening. As the rates come down, so will banks’ funding costs. Also, demand for loans is expected to improve. Hence, the investors turned bullish on banking sector stocks, driving PRK higher.

This financial services holding company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.99 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +2.1%. Revenues are expected to be $120.52 million, up 3.4% from the year-ago quarter.

While earnings and revenue growth expectations are important in evaluating the potential strength in a stock, empirical research shows a strong correlation between trends in earnings estimate revisions and near-term stock price movements.

For Park National, the consensus EPS estimate for the quarter has remained unchanged over the last 30 days. And a stock's price usually doesn't keep moving higher in the absence of any trend in earnings estimate revisions. So, make sure to keep an eye on PRK going forward to see if this recent jump can turn into more strength down the road.

The stock currently carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stocks here >>>>

Park National is part of the Zacks Banks - Midwest industry. Enterprise Financial Services (EFSC), another stock in the same industry, closed the last trading session 2.9% higher at $44.29. EFSC has returned 14.3% in the past month.

Enterprise Financial Services' consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has remained unchanged over the past month at $1.06. Compared to the company's year-ago EPS, this represents a change of -17.8%. Enterprise Financial Services currently boasts a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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