Leidos (LDOS) Registers a Bigger Fall Than the Market: Important Facts to Note

In the latest trading session, Leidos (LDOS) closed at $162.09, marking a -1.44% move from the previous day. The stock's performance was behind the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.07%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.37%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.03%.

The security and engineering company's stock has climbed by 12.38% in the past month, exceeding the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 5.58% and the S&P 500's gain of 3.94%.

The upcoming earnings release of Leidos will be of great interest to investors. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $2.63, reflecting no change from the same quarter last year. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $4.25 billion, showing a 2.82% escalation compared to the year-ago quarter.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.75 per share and revenue of $17.13 billion. These totals would mark changes of +5.29% and +2.82%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Leidos. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-term 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, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has witnessed a 0.66% increase. Leidos presently features a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Leidos has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.3 right now. This signifies a discount in comparison to the average Forward P/E of 19.88 for its industry.

It's also important to note that LDOS currently trades at a PEG ratio of 1.99. 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 Computers - IT Services industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.2 as trading concluded yesterday.

The Computers - IT Services industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 70, putting it in the top 29% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank is ordered 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 use Zacks.com to monitor all these stock-influencing metrics, and more, throughout the forthcoming trading sessions.

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Leidos Holdings, Inc. (LDOS) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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