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Penske Automotive (PAG) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Penske Automotive (PAG - Free Report) closed at $154, marking a -1.2% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.08%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.68%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.61%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the auto dealership chain had gained 13.59% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 4.88% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.1% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Penske Automotive as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Penske Automotive is projected to report earnings of $3.95 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 19.88%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $6.95 billion, up 0.56% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $15.58 per share and revenue of $28.08 billion, which would represent changes of -16.01% and +0.96%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Penske Automotive should also be noted by investors. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 0.06% lower. Penske Automotive currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Penske Automotive has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.01 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 7.23, which means Penske Automotive is trading at a premium to the group.

The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 173, putting it in the bottom 32% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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