Hormel Foods (HRL) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should
This story originally appeared on Zacks
Hormel Foods (HRL) closed at $47.77 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.15% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500’s 0.62% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.55%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.03%.
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Prior to today’s trading, shares of the maker of Spam canned ham, Dinty Moore stew and other foods had gained 11.25% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector’s gain of 3.14% and the S&P 500’s gain of 0.87% in that time.
Hormel Foods will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Hormel Foods to post earnings of $0.48 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 17.07%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.95 billion, up 19.74% from the prior-year quarter.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.98 per share and revenue of $12.22 billion. These totals would mark changes of +14.45% and +7.32%, respectively, from last year.
Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Hormel Foods. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company’s business and profitability.
Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Hormel Foods is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
In terms of valuation, Hormel Foods is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.18. This represents a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 11.85.
We can also see that HRL currently has a PEG ratio of 3.26. 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 Food – Meat Products was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.59 at yesterday’s closing price.
The Food – Meat Products industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 115, which puts it in the top 46% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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