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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK.B - Free Report) closed at $208.11 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.83% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.62% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.61%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.05%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the company had gained 4.06% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's gain of 5.86% and outpaced the S&P 500's gain of 3.85% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from BRK.B as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect BRK.B to post earnings of $2.87 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2.87%.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.39 per share and revenue of $297.69 billion. These totals would mark changes of +3.38% and +20.11%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for BRK.B. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. BRK.B is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, BRK.B currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.88. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 14.66.

Also, we should mention that BRK.B has a PEG ratio of 2.84. 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. Insurance - Property and Casualty stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.59 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Insurance - Property and Casualty industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 25, which puts it in the top 10% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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