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Vitamin Shoppe (VSI) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Vitamin Shoppe closed at $4.61, marking a +0.66% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.56% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.77%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 2.2%.

Heading into today, shares of the nutritional supplement retailer had lost 3.38% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 7.6% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.41% in that time.

VSI will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 26, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.31, down 82.35% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $255.79 million, down 4.83% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for VSI. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 10.15% lower within the past month. VSI is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, VSI is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 22.16. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.39.

The Food - Natural Foods Products industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 178, putting it in the bottom 31% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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