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PulteGroup (PHM) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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PulteGroup (PHM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $39.43, moving -1.13% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.46%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.17%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the homebuilder had lost 10.26% over the past month. This has lagged the Construction sector's loss of 8.03% and the S&P 500's loss of 6.94% in that time.

PulteGroup will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.59, up 50.58% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $4.06 billion, up 20.83% from the year-ago period.

PHM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $10.72 per share and revenue of $16.75 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +46.85% and +20.28%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for PulteGroup. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. PulteGroup currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that PulteGroup has a Forward P/E ratio of 3.72 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 3.33, which means PulteGroup is trading at a premium to the group.

It is also worth noting that PHM currently has a PEG ratio of 0.62. 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 Building Products - Home Builders was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.39 at yesterday's closing price.

The Building Products - Home Builders industry is part of the Construction sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 42, putting it in the top 17% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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