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United Technologies (UTX) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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United Technologies closed at $98.49 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.38% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.35%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 3.19%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 3.62%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of elevators, jet engines and other products had lost 26.5% over the past month. This has lagged the Conglomerates sector's loss of 17.95% and the S&P 500's loss of 14.37% in that time.

UTX will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, UTX is projected to report earnings of $1.61 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 15.71%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $18.09 billion, down 1.51% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.88 per share and revenue of $75.48 billion. These totals would mark changes of -4.6% and -2.04%, respectively, from last year.

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

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 has moved 5.24% lower. UTX currently has a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Digging into valuation, UTX currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.33. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 12.11.

It is also worth noting that UTX currently has a PEG ratio of 1.52. 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. The Diversified Operations industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.62 as of yesterday's close.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 162, putting it in the bottom 37% 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.

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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