Here's Why Amazon (AMZN) Gained But Lagged the Market Today
The most recent trading session ended with Amazon (AMZN) standing at $147.42, reflecting a +0.37% shift from the previouse trading day's closing. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.41%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.36%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.45%.
Heading into today, shares of the online retailer had gained 4.47% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 3.84% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 4.91% in that time.
The investment community will be closely monitoring the performance of Amazon in its forthcoming earnings report. In that report, analysts expect Amazon to post earnings of $0.78 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 271.43%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $165.93 billion, up 11.21% from the year-ago period.
For the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.67 per share and a revenue of $570.75 billion, representing changes of +276.06% and +11.04%, respectively, from the prior year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Amazon. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the company's business and profitability.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.22% higher within the past month. Amazon is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Looking at its valuation, Amazon is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 54.98. This denotes a premium relative to the industry's average Forward P/E of 21.25.
It is also worth noting that AMZN currently has a PEG ratio of 1.93. Comparable to the widely accepted P/E ratio, the PEG ratio also accounts for the company's projected earnings growth. As the market closed yesterday, the Internet - Commerce industry was having an average PEG ratio of 0.6.
The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 22, this industry ranks in the top 9% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Be sure to use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.
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Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) : Free Stock Analysis Report