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Asbury Automotive Group (ABG) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Asbury Automotive Group (ABG - Free Report) closed at $109.67 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.43% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.54% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.59%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.98%.

Heading into today, shares of the auto dealership chain had gained 5.55% over the past month, lagging the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 11.47% and the S&P 500's gain of 8% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ABG as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect ABG to post earnings of $2.82 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 21.03%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.81 billion, down 1.85% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.49 per share and revenue of $7.07 billion. These totals would mark changes of +10.89% and -1.98%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for ABG. 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.

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 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 5.17% higher. ABG is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Digging into valuation, ABG currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.31. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.32.

The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 2, putting it in the top 1% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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