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Big Lots (BIG) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Big Lots (BIG - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $47.25, moving -0.74% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.23%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.6%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.42%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the discount retailer had gained 5.8% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 1.85% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.51% in that time.

BIG will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, BIG is projected to report earnings of $0.65 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 461.11%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.35 billion, up 15.65% from the prior-year quarter.

BIG's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.73 per share and revenue of $6.16 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +110.63% and +15.75%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for BIG. 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. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 3.6% higher. BIG is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, BIG is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 6.16. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.2, so we one might conclude that BIG is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that BIG has a PEG ratio of 1.36 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. The Retail - Discount Stores was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.93 at yesterday's closing price.

The Retail - Discount Stores industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 184, putting it in the bottom 28% 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.

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


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