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McCormick (MKC) Stock Moves -0.02%: What You Should Know

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McCormick (MKC - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $169.21, moving -0.02% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.86%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.96%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.13%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the spices and seasonings company had gained 5.33% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.93% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.66% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MKC as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, MKC is projected to report earnings of $1.64 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 1.8%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.51 billion, up 0.59% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.38 per share and revenue of $5.37 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.25% and -0.71%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MKC. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. MKC is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, MKC is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 31.46. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 18.5.

We can also see that MKC currently has a PEG ratio of 3.93. 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 Food - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.41 at yesterday's closing price.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 149, which puts 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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