ISTR Overview

Short-term Investing Strategy: The article emphasizes the importance of identifying sustainable trends in short-term investing, highlighting that factors like strong fundamentals and positive earnings revisions are crucial for maintaining momentum in stock prices.

Investar Holding Corporation (ISTR): ISTR is presented as a strong candidate for trend investors, showing a 7.1% price increase over 12 weeks and currently trading at 91.5% of its 52-week high-low range, supported by a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and positive broker recommendations.

Stock-Picking Tools: The article mentions the "Recent Price Strength" screen and other Zacks Premium Screens as effective tools for identifying potential winning stocks, encouraging investors to backtest strategies using the Zacks Research Wizard.

AI Investment Opportunities: It discusses the upcoming wave of AI investments, suggesting that while the first wave of AI stocks may stabilize, new companies are poised for significant growth, with Zacks highlighting four under-the-radar firms as potential future stars.

Trend Investing Insights: Successful short-term investing relies on timing entries into trends and confirming the sustainability of those trends through sound fundamentals and positive earnings estimates.

Investar Holding Corporation (ISTR): ISTR has shown a solid price increase of 8% over 12 weeks and is trading at 81.2% of its 52-week high-low range, indicating potential for further gains, supported by a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Broker Recommendations: The stock has an Average Broker Recommendation of #1, reflecting strong optimism from analysts regarding its near-term price performance.

Stock-Picking Strategies: Investors can utilize various Zacks Premium Screens and the Research Wizard tool to identify stocks with strong potential, including several handpicked recommendations expected to yield significant returns.

Earnings Performance: Investar reported a Q3 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.54, exceeding expectations by $0.08.

Revenue Growth: The company achieved a revenue of $24.14 million, reflecting a 12.8% year-over-year increase and surpassing estimates by $1.64 million.

Net Interest Margin Improvement: The net interest margin improved by 13 basis points to 3.16% for the quarter ending September 30, 2025, compared to 3.03% for the previous quarter.

Additional Information: The press release includes links to Seeking Alpha’s Quant Rating, historical earnings data, and a dividend scorecard for Investar.