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Amazon (AMZN) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Amazon (AMZN - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $124.25, moving +1.21% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.45% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 2.12%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 5.41%.

Heading into today, shares of the online retailer had gained 18.05% over the past month, outpacing the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 2.03% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.53% in that time.

Amazon will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Amazon is projected to report earnings of $0.34 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 240%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $131.51 billion, up 8.47% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.57 per share and revenue of $560.37 billion, which would represent changes of +121.13% and +9.02%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Amazon should also be noted by investors. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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 has moved 1.43% higher. Amazon currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Amazon is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 78.41. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.6.

We can also see that AMZN currently has a PEG ratio of 4.27. 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. The Internet - Commerce industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.06 as of yesterday's close.

The Internet - Commerce industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 84, which puts it in the top 34% 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.

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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