Comcast (CMCSA – Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $38.28, moving -1.69% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500’s daily loss of 1.56%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.81%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.66%.
Heading into today, shares of the cable provider had gained 13.16% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Discretionary sector’s gain of 11.13% and the S&P 500’s gain of 3.82% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from Comcast as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 26, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.78, up 1.3% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $30.46 billion, up 0.4% from the year-ago period.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Comcast should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. 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.
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 0.35% lower. Comcast is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In terms of valuation, Comcast is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.48. This represents a discount compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 12.87.
Also, we should mention that CMCSA has a PEG ratio of 0.81. 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 Cable Television industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.81 as of yesterday’s close.
The Cable Television industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 149, putting it in the bottom 41% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.