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Penske Automotive (PAG) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Penske Automotive (PAG - Free Report) closed at $101.63, marking a +1.38% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.89% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.17%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.73%.

Heading into today, shares of the auto dealership chain had lost 6.5% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 11.09% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.36% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Penske Automotive as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 9, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $3.62, up 45.38% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.31 billion, up 8.57% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Penske Automotive. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 has moved 0.8% higher. Penske Automotive is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Penske Automotive's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 7.34. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 7.15, so we one might conclude that Penske Automotive is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that PAG has a PEG ratio of 0.35. 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. Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.36 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 8, which puts it in the top 4% 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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