Lockheed Martin (LMT) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

LMT

Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) closed at $363.43 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.21% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.58%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.28%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.48%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the aerospace and defense company had gained 5.01% over the past month. This has lagged the Aerospace sector's gain of 6.3% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 3.62% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from LMT as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect LMT to post earnings of $4.72 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 9.51%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $14.16 billion, up 5.67% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $20.50 per share and revenue of $58 billion, which would represent changes of +16.54% and +7.88%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for LMT. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.14% lower. LMT is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Looking at its valuation, LMT is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 17.52. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.4, which means LMT is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that LMT has a PEG ratio of 2.49. 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 Aerospace - Defense industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.91 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 49, putting it in the top 20% 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.

To follow LMT in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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