Foot Locker (FL) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Foot Locker (FL) closed at $58.94, marking a +1.36% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.27%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.41%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.09%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the shoe store had gained 3.08% over the past month. This has lagged the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 4.47% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.26% in that time.

FL will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 1, 2019. On that day, FL is projected to report earnings of $1.36 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 7.94%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.16 billion, down 2.16% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for FL should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% higher. FL is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that FL has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.9 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.84.

Also, we should mention that FL has a PEG ratio of 1.59. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.34 as of yesterday's close.

The Retail - Apparel and Shoes industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 39, putting it in the top 16% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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.

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