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CenturyLink (CTL) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, CenturyLink closed at $12.55, marking a +1.29% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.35%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.03%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.7%.

Heading into today, shares of the communications company had gained 1.39% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 6.69% and the S&P 500's gain of 5.14% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from CTL as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 8, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.28, up 12% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $5.75 billion, down 3.29% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.25 per share and revenue of $22.77 billion, which would represent changes of +5.04% and -3.43%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for CTL. 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. 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.

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 0.36% higher within the past month. CTL is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, CTL is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 9.92. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 35.9, so we one might conclude that CTL is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that CTL has a PEG ratio of 0.78. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Wireless National industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.98 as of yesterday's close.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 155, putting it in the bottom 40% 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.

To follow CTL in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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