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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $206, moving -0.88% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.22%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.08%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.36%.

Coming into today, shares of the company had gained 5.86% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector gained 7.96%, while the S&P 500 gained 8.17%.

BRK.B will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.23, up 65.19% from the prior-year quarter.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for BRK.B should also be noted by investors. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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.

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. BRK.B is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, BRK.B currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.96. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.67, so we one might conclude that BRK.B is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that BRK.B currently has a PEG ratio of 2.85. 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 Insurance - Property and Casualty industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.21 as of yesterday's close.

The Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 99, which puts 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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