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Livent (LTHM) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Livent closed the most recent trading day at $22.25, moving +0.91% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.52%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.06%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.37%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the supplier of performance lithium compounds had lost 7.08% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's loss of 3.07% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.51% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Livent as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 17, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Livent to post earnings of $0.06 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 400%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $106.05 million, up 29.01% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Livent. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. 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. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 17.48% higher. Livent currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, Livent is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 45.78. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 16.47.

Meanwhile, LTHM's PEG ratio is currently 1.06. 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. Chemical - Specialty stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.95 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Chemical - Specialty industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 147, putting it in the bottom 43% 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.

To follow LTHM in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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