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Western Alliance (WAL) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Western Alliance (WAL - Free Report) closed at $34.25 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.03% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.99%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the bank holding company had gained 14.64% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's loss of 3.22% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.42% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Western Alliance as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Western Alliance to post earnings of $2.02 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 15.48%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $660.8 million, up 5.19% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $8.23 per share and revenue of $2.62 billion, which would represent changes of -15.15% and +2.22%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Western Alliance should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 1.27% higher. Western Alliance is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note Western Alliance's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 4.12. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 6.4, so we one might conclude that Western Alliance is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that WAL has a PEG ratio of 0.41. 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. Banks - West stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.54 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Banks - West industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 243, putting it in the bottom 4% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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