Lockheed Martin (LMT) ended the recent trading session at $460.20, demonstrating a -2.59% change from the preceding day's closing price. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.11%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 1.19%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 1.43%.
Heading into today, shares of the aerospace and defense company had gained 0.76% over the past month, lagging the Aerospace sector's gain of 6.17% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.92%.
The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Lockheed Martin in its upcoming release. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $6.57, marking a 7.59% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $18.59 billion, up 2.57% from the year-ago period.
In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $27.27 per share and a revenue of $74.36 billion, indicating changes of -4.21% and +4.66%, respectively, from the former year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Lockheed Martin. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. Therefore, positive revisions in estimates convey analysts' confidence in the business performance and profit potential.
Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term stock moves. 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, 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 0.12% lower within the past month. Lockheed Martin is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Lockheed Martin currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.33. This denotes a discount relative to the industry average Forward P/E of 23.97.
It's also important to note that LMT currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.65. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. As the market closed yesterday, the Aerospace - Defense industry was having an average PEG ratio of 2.
The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 40, which puts it in the top 17% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. 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.
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Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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