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United Rentals (URI) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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United Rentals (URI - Free Report) closed at $230.93 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.56% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.08% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.38%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.29%.

Heading into today, shares of the equipment rental company had lost 4.42% over the past month, lagging the Construction sector's gain of 4.51% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.8% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from URI as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, URI is projected to report earnings of $4.21 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 24.82%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $2.17 billion, down 11.83% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $16.70 per share and revenue of $8.41 billion. These totals would mark changes of -14.45% and -10.03%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for URI should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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. 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 0.45% higher. URI is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note URI's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 13.61. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.63.

Also, we should mention that URI has a PEG ratio of 2.05. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Building Products - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.94 at yesterday's closing price.

The Building Products - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Construction sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 117, which puts it in the top 46% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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