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AeroVironment (AVAV) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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AeroVironment (AVAV - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $75.87, moving +1.03% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.07%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.25%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.14%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of unmanned aircrafts had gained 2.04% over the past month. This has lagged the Aerospace sector's gain of 16.82% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.28% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from AVAV as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.14, up 55.56% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $75.30 million, up 17.77% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.48 per share and revenue of $308.31 million, which would represent changes of +37.04% and +3.14%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AVAV. 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, 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 remained stagnant. AVAV is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AVAV has a Forward P/E ratio of 50.74 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.53.

Investors should also note that AVAV has a PEG ratio of 2.03 right now. 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. The Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.15 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, putting it in the top 39% 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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