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Why Comcast (CMCSA) Outpaced the Stock Market Today

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Comcast (CMCSA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $35.63, moving +2.98% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.55%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw an upswing of 0.25%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.63%.

Coming into today, shares of the cable provider had lost 0.35% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Discretionary sector gained 5.92%, while the S&P 500 gained 6.29%.

Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of Comcast in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $1.18, signifying a 2.48% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $29.81 billion, indicating a 0.4% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

CMCSA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $4.35 per share and revenue of $122.07 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +0.46% and -1.35%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Comcast. Such recent modifications usually signify the changing landscape of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.14% lower. Comcast is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Comcast currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.95. This indicates a discount in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 8.97.

We can also see that CMCSA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.69. 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. As of the close of trade yesterday, the Cable Television industry held an average PEG ratio of 0.45.

The Cable Television industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 199, which puts it in the bottom 20% of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these 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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