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CenturyLink (CTL) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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CenturyLink closed at $15.21 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.17% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.22%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.7%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.08%.

Heading into today, shares of the communications company had gained 5.99% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 7.59% and the S&P 500's gain of 9.27% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CTL as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 13, 2019. On that day, CTL is projected to report earnings of $0.36 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 100%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $5.80 billion, up 8.9% from the prior-year quarter.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for CTL. 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.

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 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.27% lower within the past month. CTL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Looking at its valuation, CTL is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 12.64. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.55.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 64, putting it in the top 25% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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