In the latest trading session, Facebook (FB) closed at $175.90, marking a -0.25% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 0.57%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.23%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.99%.
Coming into today, shares of the social media company had gained 2.13% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 3.63%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.01%.
FB will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be November 7, 2018. On that day, FB is projected to report earnings of $1.48 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 6.92%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $13.83 billion, up 33.91% from the year-ago period.
FB’s full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.08 per share and revenue of $55.46 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +14.94% and +36.41%, respectively.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for FB. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. FB is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
Looking at its valuation, FB is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 24.91. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 35.01, which means FB is trading at a discount to the group.
We can also see that FB currently has a PEG ratio of 1.13. 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 Internet – Services industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.79 as of yesterday’s close.
The Internet – Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 157, putting it in the bottom 38% 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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