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Preferred Apartment Communities (APTS) Flat As Market Sinks: What You Should Know

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Preferred Apartment Communities closed at $24.94 in the latest trading session, marking no change from the prior day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.26%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.8%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.44%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the real estate investment trust had lost 1.23% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's gain of 3.84% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.07% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Preferred Apartment Communities as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Preferred Apartment Communities is projected to report earnings of $0.27 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 8%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $104.58 million, down 9.61% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.05 per share and revenue of $421.05 million, which would represent changes of -4.55% and -6.67%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any 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. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.94% higher within the past month. Preferred Apartment Communities is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, Preferred Apartment Communities currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 23.75. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.93.

We can also see that APTS currently has a PEG ratio of 3.39. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. APTS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 3.76 as of yesterday's close.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Residential industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 72, which puts it in the top 29% 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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