Piedmont Lithium Inc. (PLL) shares rallied 24.6% in the last trading session to close at $8.91. 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 5.5% gain over the past four weeks.

Piedmont Lithium and Sayona Mining Limited recently announced that since their merger announcement on Nov. 19, 2024, significant progress has been made. Approval has been obtained for the Investment Canada Act (ICA) and the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act. The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has completed its review and confirmed it will not take any further action concerning the transaction. 

The companies also announced a few amendments to their agreement. One of these stipulates that Sayona will seek shareholder approval for a share consolidation at a ratio of one-for-150 before the completion of the transaction.  If approved, an updated exchange ratio of 3.5133 Sayona shares for each Piedmont share will be implemented. This replaced the previously announced exchange ratio of 527 Sayona shares for each Piedmont Lithium ordinary share. 

Also, each Sayona American Depository Share issued in the transaction will represent 1,500 Sayona shares pre-share consolidation or 10 Sayona shares post-share consolidation. Subject to Sayona shareholder approval, the name of the combined entity will be Elevra Lithium Limited. 

This company is expected to post quarterly loss of $0.50 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +18%. Revenues are expected to be $33.07 million, up 146.8% 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 Piedmont Lithium, 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 PLL 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 >>>>

Piedmont Lithium is a member of the Zacks Mining - Miscellaneous industry. One other stock in the same industry, HudBay Minerals (HBM), finished the last trading session 4.3% higher at $7.56. HBM has returned -9.9% over the past month.

Story Continues

For HudBay Minerals , the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed -1.1% over the past month to $0.12. This represents a change of -25% from what the company reported a year ago. HudBay Minerals currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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