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Rockwell Automation (ROK) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Rockwell Automation (ROK - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $342.46, moving +0.86% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.85%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.14%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 5.61%.

Coming into today, shares of the industrial equipment and software maker had gained 8.44% in the past month. In that same time, the Industrial Products sector gained 6.85%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.18%.

Rockwell Automation will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Rockwell Automation to post earnings of $3.15 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 18.42%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.29 billion, up 16.19% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.98 per share and revenue of $8.89 billion, which would represent changes of +26.24% and +14.57%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Rockwell Automation. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.49% lower within the past month. Rockwell Automation is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Rockwell Automation currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 28.34. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 38.5.

Also, we should mention that ROK has a PEG ratio of 2.5. 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 Industrial Automation and Robotics industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 9 as of yesterday's close.

The Industrial Automation and Robotics industry is part of the Industrial Products sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 214, which puts it in the bottom 16% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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