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Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK.B) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Berkshire Hathaway B (BRK.B - Free Report) closed at $280.93 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.13% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.69%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the company had gained 2.36% over the past month. This has outpaced the Finance sector's gain of 0.64% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.58% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from BRK.B as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, BRK.B is projected to report earnings of $3.03 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 31.74%.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $11.79 per share and revenue of $320.12 billion. These totals would mark changes of +28.57% and +30.39%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for BRK.B should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. BRK.B is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Digging into valuation, BRK.B currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.1. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 15.17, which means BRK.B is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that BRK.B currently has a PEG ratio of 3.44. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Insurance - Property and Casualty stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.11 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 168, which puts it in the bottom 34% 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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