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Select Medical (SEM) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Select Medical (SEM - Free Report) closed at $35.98, marking a -0.72% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.68% loss on the day.

Heading into today, shares of the hospital and rehabilitation center operator had gained 3.76% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector's loss of 1.49% and lagging the S&P 500's gain of 6.62% in that time.

SEM will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 6, 2021. On that day, SEM is projected to report earnings of $0.65 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 75.68%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.48 billion, up 4.37% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.23 per share and revenue of $5.9 billion. These totals would mark changes of +17.99% and +6.7%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for SEM. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

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 remained stagnant. SEM currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Digging into valuation, SEM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.36. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.34, so we one might conclude that SEM is trading at a discount comparatively.

Meanwhile, SEM's PEG ratio is currently 1.09. 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 Medical - HMOs industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.43 as of yesterday's close.

The Medical - HMOs industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 206, which puts it in the bottom 19% 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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