Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Legg Mason (LM) Stock Moves -0.72%: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Legg Mason closed the most recent trading day at $48.50, moving -0.72% from the previous trading session. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 4.41%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 4.44%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 4.41%.

Heading into today, shares of the money manager had lost 1.71% over the past month, outpacing the Finance sector's loss of 20.36% and the S&P 500's loss of 12.16% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from LM as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.91, up 30% from the prior-year quarter.

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. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 2.27% lower. LM is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

In terms of valuation, LM is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 13.36. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 7.29, so we one might conclude that LM is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that LM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.17. 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 Financial - Investment Management industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.76 as of yesterday's close.

The Financial - Investment Management industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 193, putting it in the bottom 25% 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.

Published in