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Rockwell Automation (ROK) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Rockwell Automation (ROK - Free Report) closed at $288.73, marking a +1.24% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.07%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.02%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.01%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the industrial equipment and software maker had lost 2.17% over the past month. This has lagged the Industrial Products sector's loss of 1.37% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.38% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Rockwell Automation as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Rockwell Automation is projected to report earnings of $3.49 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 14.8%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.43 billion, up 14.29% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.94 per share and revenue of $8.93 billion. These totals would mark changes of +25.82% and +15.01%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Rockwell Automation 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.11% higher. Rockwell Automation is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Rockwell Automation is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 23.88. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 23.3, so we one might conclude that Rockwell Automation is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that ROK currently has a PEG ratio of 1.93. 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. ROK's industry had an average PEG ratio of 4.58 as of yesterday's close.

The Industrial Automation and Robotics industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 112, putting it in the top 45% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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