Northrop Grumman (NOC) closed the most recent trading day at $479.84, moving +0.98% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.59%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.82%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw an increase of 0.55%.
Coming into today, shares of the defense contractor had lost 0.13% in the past month. In that same time, the Aerospace sector gained 7.35%, while the S&P 500 gained 9.16%.
Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Northrop Grumman in its upcoming release. In that report, analysts expect Northrop Grumman to post earnings of $5.77 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 23.07%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $10.4 billion, reflecting a 3.7% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.
For the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates project earnings of $22.73 per share and a revenue of $39.02 billion, demonstrating changes of -11% and +6.61%, respectively, from the preceding year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Northrop Grumman. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.
Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.1% increase. Northrop Grumman is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.
In the context of valuation, Northrop Grumman is at present trading with a Forward P/E ratio of 20.91. This indicates a premium in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 17.58.
Meanwhile, NOC's PEG ratio is currently 8.64. 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 1.91.
The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 64, putting it in the top 26% of all 250+ industries.
The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.
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