Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Preferred Apartment Communities (APTS) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Preferred Apartment Communities closed at $18.09 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.23% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.08%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.56%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 4.81%.

Heading into today, shares of the real estate investment trust had gained 25.71% over the past month, outpacing the Finance sector's gain of 5.21% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.64% in that time.

Preferred Apartment Communities will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Preferred Apartment Communities is projected to report earnings of $0.23 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 25.81%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $102.49 million, down 15.38% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Preferred Apartment Communities. 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.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Preferred Apartment Communities currently has a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Looking at its valuation, Preferred Apartment Communities is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 17.56. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 24.41, so we one might conclude that Preferred Apartment Communities is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that APTS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.51. 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. The REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 4.11 as of yesterday's close.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 48, putting it in the top 19% 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.

Published in