Procter & Gamble (PG) closed the most recent trading day at $92.70, moving +0.31% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.97%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 2.32%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 2.78%.
Heading into today, shares of the world's largest consumer products maker had gained 17.17% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.24% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.33% in that time.
PG will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 22, 2019. In that report, analysts expect PG to post earnings of $1.21 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 1.68%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $17.20 billion, down 1.11% from the year-ago period.
For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.41 per share and revenue of $66.88 billion, which would represent changes of +4.5% and +0.08%, respectively, from the prior year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for PG should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.25% lower. PG is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Looking at its valuation, PG is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 20.96. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 21.25, which means PG is trading at a discount to the group.
Investors should also note that PG has a PEG ratio of 3.03 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Soap and Cleaning Materials was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.31 at yesterday's closing price.
The Soap and Cleaning Materials industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 234, which puts it in the bottom 9% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.
Procter & Gamble Company (The) (NYSE:
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