Freshpet (FRPT) ended the recent trading session at $52.47, demonstrating a -4.29% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock's change was less than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.47%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.11%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 0.94%.
The stock of seller of refrigerated fresh pet food has fallen by 10.48% in the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 1.75% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.32%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Freshpet in its upcoming earnings disclosure. In that report, analysts expect Freshpet to post earnings of $0.44 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 83.33%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $285.88 million, up 12.83% from the prior-year quarter.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $1.31 per share and revenue of $1.11 billion, indicating changes of +70.13% and +13.86%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Freshpet. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. To capitalize on this, we've crafted the Zacks Rank, a unique model that incorporates these estimate changes and offers a practical rating system.
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. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. Freshpet is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In the context of valuation, Freshpet is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 41.84. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 16.09.
We can additionally observe that FRPT currently boasts a PEG ratio of 0.97. 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 average PEG ratio for the Food - Miscellaneous industry stood at 1.83 at the close of the market yesterday.
The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 163, this industry ranks in the bottom 35% of all industries, numbering over 250.
The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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.
Remember to apply Zacks.com to follow these and more stock-moving metrics during the upcoming trading sessions.
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Freshpet, Inc. (FRPT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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