In the latest close session, Intuit (INTU) was up +1.63% at $798.73. The stock's performance was ahead of the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.02%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.14%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.33%.
Heading into today, shares of the maker of TurboTax, QuickBooks and other accounting software had gained 1.21% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 6.31% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.93%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Intuit in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.65, up 33.17% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.74 billion, up 17.61% from the year-ago period.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $20.06 per share and a revenue of $18.74 billion, signifying shifts of +18.42% and +15.1%, respectively, from the last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Intuit. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% higher. Currently, Intuit is carrying a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Investors should also note Intuit's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 39.18. This denotes a premium relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 26.57.
We can also see that INTU currently has a PEG ratio of 2.56. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Computer - Software industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.33 as of yesterday's close.
The Computer - Software industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 37, finds itself in the top 15% echelons of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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Intuit Inc. (INTU): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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