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Kraft Heinz (KHC) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Kraft Heinz (KHC - Free Report) closed at $39.29 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.71% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.51%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.44%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.1%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Oscar Mayer meats, Jell-O pudding and Velveeta cheese had lost 0.9% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 0.04% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.51% in that time.

Kraft Heinz will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Kraft Heinz is projected to report earnings of $0.52 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 27.78%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $5.74 billion, down 10.24% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.64 per share and revenue of $24.89 billion. These totals would mark changes of -9.9% and -4.42%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Kraft Heinz. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 has moved 0.29% higher within the past month. Kraft Heinz is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Kraft Heinz has a Forward P/E ratio of 14.65 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.32, so we one might conclude that Kraft Heinz is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that KHC currently has a PEG ratio of 2.93. 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 Food - Miscellaneous was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.93 at yesterday's closing price.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 223, putting it in the bottom 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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