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Here's Why You Should Retain ABM Industries (ABM) Stock

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ABM Industries Incorporated (ABM - Free Report) is reaping the benefits of strategic acquisitions and organic investments. The investments are fetching results for the company in the form of improvement in its service-providing capability.

ABM has an impressive earning surprise history, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of earnings in three of the four trailing quarters and matching on one instance, the average surprise being 3%.

ABM Industries Incorporated Price and EPS Surprise

ABM Industries Incorporated Price and EPS Surprise

ABM Industries Incorporated price-eps-surprise | ABM Industries Incorporated Quote

Factors in Favor

ABM Industries’ efforts to gratify its investors are praiseworthy. The company, which has been a regular dividend payer, paid $51.9 million, $51 million and $49.3 million as dividends in fiscal 2022, 2021 and 2020, respectively. ABM also returned $9.8 million and $5.1 million as share repurchases in 2022 and 2020 respectively.  There were no share repurchases during 2021.

The company intends to grow through its strategic acquisitions and organic investments. The Vision 2020 and ELEVATE strategies are aimed at growth through strategic acquisitions that help enhance the company’s core competencies in newer geographical markets. The company has reaped the benefits of these strategic investments which strengthen its ability to offer janitorial, engineering, parking, eMobility and other such services.

ABM Industries' current ratio at the end of January-quarter was pegged at 1.30, higher than the current ratio of 1.17 reported at the end of the prior-year quarter. It indicates the company will not be having any problems meeting its short-term obligations.

Some Risks

ABM Industries is plagued by high operating expenses which are increasing year over year. During fiscal 2022, operating expenses of $6.76 billion increased 28.5% year over year. The same rose 2% year over year in fiscal 2021.

ABM has plunged 3.6% in the last six months, compared with its industry’s 1.9% decline.

Zacks Rank and Stocks to Consider

ABM currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Green Dot (GDOT - Free Report) , DocuSign (DOCU - Free Report) and Maximus (MMS - Free Report) .

For second-quarter 2023, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of Green Dot’s revenues suggests a decline of 4.2% year over year to $340.1 million and the same for earnings indicates a 52.7% dip to 35 cents per share. The company has an impressive earning surprise history, beating the Zacks Consensus mark in all four trailing quarters. The company has an average surprise of 37.3%.

GDOT has a Value score of A and currently sports a Zacks Rank of 1(Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

For the first quarter of fiscal 2023, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of DocuSign’s revenues suggests an increase of 8.9% year over year to $641.2 million and the same for earnings suggests an increase of 39.5% to 53 cents per share. The company has an impressive earning surprise history, beating the Zacks Consensus mark in three instances and missing on one instance, the average surprise being 12.3%.

DOCU has a growth score of A and a Zacks Rank of 2 at present.

For second-quarter 2023, the Zacks Consensus Estimate of Maximus’ revenues suggests an increase of 6.1% year over year to $1.2 billion and the same for earnings indicates a 33.3% rise to $1.04 per share. The company has an impressive earning surprise history, beating the Zacks Consensus mark in three instances and missing on one instance, the average surprise being 9.6%.

MMS has a VGM score of A and a Zacks Rank of 2.

 

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