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Cerner (CERN) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Cerner closed the most recent trading day at $93.59, moving -0.03% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.23% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.97%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.44%.

Heading into today, shares of the health care information technology company had gained 0.4% over the past month, lagging the Medical sector's gain of 4.31% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.69% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Cerner as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Cerner to post earnings of $0.89 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 17.11%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.46 billion, up 5.48% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.67 per share and revenue of $6.06 billion, which would represent changes of +9.55% and +5.08%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Cerner. 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 has moved 0.13% lower within the past month. Cerner is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Cerner is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 25.52. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.24.

Also, we should mention that CERN has a PEG ratio of 2. 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 Medical Info Systems was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.89 at yesterday's closing price.

The Medical Info Systems industry is part of the Medical sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 178, putting it in the bottom 30% 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.

To follow CERN in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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