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General Motors (GM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, General Motors (GM - Free Report) closed at $36.46, marking a +0.58% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.63% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.68%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.64%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the automaker had gained 5.84% over the past month. This has outpaced the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector's loss of 2.18% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.95% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from GM as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 5, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.15, down 30.3% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $36.72 billion, down 2.65% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.04 per share and revenue of $145.86 billion, which would represent changes of -8.76% and -2.45%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for GM. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of 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. 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.

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 has moved 2.59% higher within the past month. GM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, GM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.01. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.93.

Also, we should mention that GM has a PEG ratio of 0.71. 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. The Automotive - Domestic industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.34 as of yesterday's close.

The Automotive - Domestic industry is part of the Auto-Tires-Trucks sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 13, putting it in the top 5% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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