In the latest trading session, United Technologies (UTX) closed at $129.73, marking a +0.65% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.06%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.83%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.72%.
Coming into today, shares of the maker of elevators, jet engines and other products had lost 0.91% in the past month. In that same time, the Conglomerates sector lost 7.34%, while the S&P 500 lost 2.09%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from UTX as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be January 23, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.63, up 1.88% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $16.40 billion, up 4.6% from the year-ago period.
UTX's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.28 per share and revenue of $64.67 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.47% and +8.08%, respectively.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for UTX. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 0.65% higher. UTX is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
Digging into valuation, UTX currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.7. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.5, which means UTX is trading at a premium to the group.
We can also see that UTX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.95. 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. The Diversified Operations industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.89 as of yesterday's close.
The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 109, putting it in the top 42% 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
United Technologies Corporation (NYSE:UTX
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Zacks Investment Research