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PepsiCo (PEP) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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PepsiCo (PEP - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $109.89, moving +0.61% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.32%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.38%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.74%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the food and beverage company had lost 0.9% over the past month. This has lagged the Consumer Staples sector's loss of 0.52% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.16% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from PEP as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 15, 2019. In that report, analysts expect PEP to post earnings of $1.49 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 13.74%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $19.51 billion, down 0.08% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for PEP. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.2% lower within the past month. PEP is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that PEP has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.65 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 19.07, which means PEP is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that PEP has a PEG ratio of 2.66. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. Beverages - Soft drinks stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.82 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Beverages - Soft drinks industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 198, which puts it in the bottom 23% 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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