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Lockheed Martin (LMT) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) closed at $338.59 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.54% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.81%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.46%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.69%.

Heading into today, shares of the aerospace and defense company had gained 2.62% over the past month, lagging the Aerospace sector's gain of 7.86% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.56% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from LMT as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $6.34, up 4.28% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $16.46 billion, up 5.15% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $26.32 per share and revenue of $68.14 billion. These totals would mark changes of +7.43% and +4.19%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for LMT should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.02% lower within the past month. LMT currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, LMT is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 12.55. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.21, which means LMT is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that LMT has a PEG ratio of 2.11. 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 1.87 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 221, which puts it in the bottom 14% 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.

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


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