Back to top

Image: Bigstock

U.S. Concrete (USCR) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

In the latest trading session, U.S. Concrete closed at $73.62, marking a -0.11% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.23% gain on the day.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the concrete and aggregates producer had gained 29.32% over the past month. This has outpaced the Construction sector's loss of 1.39% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.34% in that time.

USCR will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, USCR is projected to report earnings of $0.69 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 40.82%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $342.33 million, up 6.08% from the year-ago period.

USCR's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $2.59 per share and revenue of $1.4 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +21.6% and +2.48%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for USCR 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. USCR is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.

Investors should also note USCR's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 28.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.36, so we one might conclude that USCR is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Building Products - Concrete and Aggregates industry is part of the Construction sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 38, putting it in the top 15% 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.

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

Published in