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Kraft Heinz (KHC) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Kraft Heinz (KHC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $31.13, moving +0.55% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.95%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.94%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.8%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Oscar Mayer meats, Jell-O pudding and Velveeta cheese had lost 2.89% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector gained 1.12%, while the S&P 500 gained 2.47%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from KHC as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, KHC is projected to report earnings of $0.60 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 32.58%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.08 billion, down 3.49% from the prior-year quarter.

KHC's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.81 per share and revenue of $25.85 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -20.4% and -1.55%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for KHC 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.27% lower. KHC is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, KHC is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 11.01. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.74, which means KHC is trading at a discount to the group.

Investors should also note that KHC has a PEG ratio of 3 right now. 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 2.45 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 151, putting it in the bottom 42% 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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