Facebook closed the most recent trading day at $169.60, moving +0.28% from the previous trading session. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.21% loss on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.18%.
Coming into today, shares of the social media company had gained 1.65% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector gained 2.89%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.81%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from FB as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect FB to post earnings of $1.63 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 3.47%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.96 billion, up 25.03% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.55 per share and revenue of $68.89 billion. These totals would mark changes of -0.31% and +23.37%, respectively, from last year.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for FB should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
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.
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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. FB is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that FB has a Forward P/E ratio of 22.41 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 24.29, which means FB is trading at a discount to the group.
Also, we should mention that FB has a PEG ratio of 0.99. 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. FB's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.7 as of yesterday's close.
The Internet - Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 150, which puts it in the bottom 42% 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.
