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Legg Mason (LM) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Legg Mason closed the most recent trading day at $38.60, moving +1.53% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.01%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.14%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.19%.

Coming into today, shares of the money manager had lost 1.4% in the past month. In that same time, the Finance sector gained 1.48%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.61%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LM as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, LM is projected to report earnings of $0.90 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 11.11%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $734.22 million, down 3.19% from the year-ago period.

LM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $3.63 per share and revenue of $2.90 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +1055.26% and +0.04%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LM. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.71% lower. LM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, LM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.47. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.46, which means LM is trading at a discount to the group.

Meanwhile, LM's PEG ratio is currently 0.73. 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. Financial - Investment Management stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.55 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial - Investment Management industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 66, putting it in the top 26% 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 LM in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.

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