Freshpet (FRPT) ended the recent trading session at $72.45, demonstrating a -2.45% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock fell short of the S&P 500, which registered a gain of 0.94% for the day. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.75%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 1.52%.
The seller of refrigerated fresh pet food's stock has dropped by 15.27% in the past month, falling short of the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 2.68% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.67%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Freshpet in its upcoming release. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.1, signifying a 433.33% increase compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $268.55 million, indicating a 14.16% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $1.27 per share and revenue of $1.13 billion, indicating changes of +64.94% and +15.61%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors should also take note of any recent adjustments to analyst estimates for Freshpet. These latest adjustments often mirror the shifting dynamics of short-term business patterns. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 8.15% lower within the past month. Right now, Freshpet possesses a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Freshpet currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 58.44. This signifies a premium in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 16.92 for its industry.
We can also see that FRPT currently has a PEG ratio of 1.24. 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 Food - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.58 at yesterday's closing price.
The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 178, which puts it in the bottom 28% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the vigor of our specific industry groups by computing the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks incorporated in the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding 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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