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Medifast (MED) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Medifast (MED - Free Report) closed at $214.20, marking a +1.19% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.65%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.79%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.01%.

Coming into today, shares of the weight-loss company had lost 3.83% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector lost 2.45%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.82%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MED as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be November 6, 2018. On that day, MED is projected to report earnings of $1.15 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 109.09%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $125.40 million, up 62.41% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $4.50 per share and revenue of $470.20 million. These totals would mark changes of +96.51% and +55.92%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MED should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. MED is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, MED currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 47.04. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.27, which means MED is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, MED's PEG ratio is currently 2.35. 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. Food - Miscellaneous stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.01 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 191, which puts it in the bottom 25% 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.

To follow MED in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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