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Ensign Group (ENSG) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Ensign Group (ENSG - Free Report) closed at $42.52, marking a +1.6% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.5%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 0.3%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.95%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the provider of nursing and rehabilitative care services had lost 3.64% over the past month. This has lagged the Medical sector's loss of 1.24% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.89% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from ENSG as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, ENSG is projected to report earnings of $0.57 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 5.56%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $573.24 million, down 0.42% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.54 per share and revenue of $2.39 billion, which would represent changes of +13.39% and +4.44%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for ENSG should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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 0.42% lower. ENSG is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, ENSG currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.5. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.5, which means ENSG is trading at a no noticeable deviation to the group.

Also, we should mention that ENSG has a PEG ratio of 1.1. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Medical - Nursing Homes stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.1 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Nursing Homes industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 35, which puts it in the top 14% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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