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Campbell Soup (CPB) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Campbell Soup (CPB - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $51.24, moving +0.97% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.47%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.51%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.11%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of canned soup, Pepperidge Farm cookies and V8 juice had gained 16.43% over the past month. This has outpaced the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 14.2% and the S&P 500's gain of 16.09% in that time.

CPB will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect CPB to post earnings of $0.68 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 21.43%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $2.11 billion, down 3.02% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.79 per share and revenue of $8.48 billion. These totals would mark changes of +21.3% and -9.49%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for CPB. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-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. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.11% higher. CPB currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, CPB currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.22. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 17.57, which means CPB is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that CPB has a PEG ratio of 2.54. 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 Food - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 3.29 as of yesterday's close.

The Food - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 44, putting it in the top 18% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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