Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Veritiv (VRTV) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Veritiv closed the most recent trading day at $126.01, moving +1.05% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.56%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.41%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.35%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the distributor of packaging and printing supplies had lost 9.35% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's loss of 3.21% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.48% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Veritiv as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Veritiv is projected to report earnings of $4.90 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 4.3%.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Veritiv. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 15.18% higher. Veritiv is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, Veritiv currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.44. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 6.93.

Investors should also note that VRTV has a PEG ratio of 0.41 right now. 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. Paper and Related Products stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.93 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Paper and Related Products industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 200, which puts it in the bottom 21% 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.

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

Published in