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Leidos (LDOS) Stock Falls Amid Market Uptick: What Investors Need to Know

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Leidos (LDOS - Free Report) closed at $127.69 in the latest trading session, marking a -2.5% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.17%. Elsewhere, the Dow saw a downswing of 0.18%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq appreciated by 0.4%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the security and engineering company had lost 7.36% lagged the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 0.37% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.29%.

Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of Leidos in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $3, indicating a 1.64% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. In the meantime, our current consensus estimate forecasts the revenue to be $4.72 billion, indicating a 5.52% growth compared to the corresponding quarter of the prior year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $12.27 per share and a revenue of $18.29 billion, indicating changes of +2.34% and +6.52%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Leidos. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the business and profitability.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.9% lower within the past month. Leidos currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at valuation, Leidos is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.67. This expresses a discount compared to the average Forward P/E of 13.72 of its industry.

We can additionally observe that LDOS currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.47. The PEG ratio is akin to the commonly utilized P/E ratio, but this measure also incorporates the company's anticipated earnings growth rate. LDOS's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.39 as of yesterday's close.

The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 149, which puts it in the bottom 40% 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.

Don't forget to use Zacks.com to keep track of all these stock-moving metrics, and others, in the upcoming trading sessions.

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