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Silicon Motion (SIMO) shares soared 5.7% in the last trading session to close at $74.25. The move was backed by solid volume with far more shares changing hands than in a normal session. This compares to the stock's 8.2% gain over the past four weeks.

The rally was driven by increased investor optimism after the company announced preliminary first-quarter 2022 results. Silicon Motion expects sequential revenue growth to be slightly above its original guidance of $225 million to $238 million, issued on Jan 27. Non-GAAP gross margin is anticipated to be about 52%, above the company’s original 49.5% to 51.5% guidance. Silicon Motion is scheduled to release first-quarter 2022 results on May 4, after the closing bell.

This chip company is expected to post quarterly earnings of $1.48 per share in its upcoming report, which represents a year-over-year change of +33.3%. Revenues are expected to be $231.67 million, up 27% 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 Silicon Motion, 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 SIMO 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).

Silicon Motion is a member of the Zacks Electronics - Semiconductors industry. One other stock in the same industry, Nova Ltd. (NVMI) , finished the last trading session 0.6% lower at $98.51. NVMI has returned -0.7% over the past month.

For Nova Ltd., the consensus EPS estimate for the upcoming report has changed +2.3% over the past month to $1.05. This represents a change of +50% from what the company reported a year ago. Nova Ltd. currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).