General Electric (GE) closed at $12.94 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.33% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.01%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.09%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.26%.
Prior to today’s trading, shares of the industrial conglomerate had lost 3.04% over the past month. This has lagged the Conglomerates sector’s gain of 1.12% and the S&P 500’s gain of 3.73% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from GE as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be October 19, 2018. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.22, down 24.14% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $29.89 billion, down 10.7% from the prior-year quarter.
GE’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $0.97 per share and revenue of $121.58 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -7.62% and -0.42%, respectively.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for GE should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.21% lower. GE currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, GE is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 13.2. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.36, so we one might conclude that GE is trading at a discount comparatively.
We can also see that GE currently has a PEG ratio of 2.4. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock’s expected earnings growth rate. Diversified Operations stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.65 based on yesterday’s closing prices.
The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 91, putting it in the top 36% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.