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Verizon Communications (VZ) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Verizon Communications (VZ - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $56.39, moving +1.02% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.4%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the largest U.S. cellphone carrier had lost 1.92% over the past month. This has lagged the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 7.26% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.07% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from VZ as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be July 21, 2021. On that day, VZ is projected to report earnings of $1.28 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 8.47%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $32.39 billion, up 6.37% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $5.09 per share and revenue of $133.46 billion, which would represent changes of +3.88% and +4.03%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for VZ. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 0.19% higher. VZ currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that VZ has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.98 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 46.92, which means VZ is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that VZ currently has a PEG ratio of 3.8. 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. Wireless National stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.24 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 43, putting it in the top 17% 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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