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Lockheed Martin (LMT) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Lockheed Martin (LMT - Free Report) closed at $389.97 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.54% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.51%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.36%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.75%.

Coming into today, shares of the aerospace and defense company had gained 0.89% in the past month. In that same time, the Aerospace sector gained 3.93%, while the S&P 500 gained 3.44%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LMT as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.72, down 8.17% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $14.98 billion, up 4.65% from the prior-year quarter.

LMT's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $21.22 per share and revenue of $59.31 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +20.64% and +10.31%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for LMT. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. LMT currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, LMT currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.28. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.12, so we one might conclude that LMT is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that LMT currently has a PEG ratio of 2.57. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Aerospace - Defense industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.08 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 8, putting it in the top 4% 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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