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CenturyLink (CTL) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, CenturyLink closed at $14.53, marking a +0.21% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.54% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.94%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.54%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the communications company had gained 10.52% over the past month. This has outpaced the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 5.9% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.22% in that time.

CTL will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 12, 2020. On that day, CTL is projected to report earnings of $0.33 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 10.81%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.54 billion, down 4.06% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for CTL. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant. CTL is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, CTL currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.07. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.58, so we one might conclude that CTL is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that CTL has a PEG ratio of 1.36 right now. 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. Wireless National stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.92 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Wireless National industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 165, which puts it in the bottom 36% 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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