Freshpet (FRPT) closed at $70.39 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.55% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.13% loss on the day. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 0.11%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.72%.
The seller of refrigerated fresh pet food's shares have seen an increase of 17.35% over the last month, surpassing the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 4.05% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.78%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Freshpet in its upcoming release. The company is forecasted to report an EPS of $0.43, showcasing a 19.44% upward movement from the corresponding quarter of the prior year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $285.8 million, showing a 8.79% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $2.49 per share and a revenue of $1.1 billion, demonstrating changes of +223.38% and 0%, respectively, from the preceding year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Freshpet. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable 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 terms of valuation, Freshpet is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 49.13. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 13.6, which means Freshpet is trading at a premium to the group.
Meanwhile, FRPT's PEG ratio is currently 1.75. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Food - Miscellaneous industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.75.
The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. With its current Zacks Industry Rank of 183, this industry ranks in the bottom 26% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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Freshpet, Inc. (FRPT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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