AeroVironment (AVAV) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

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AeroVironment (AVAV) closed at $100.03 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.92% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.22%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.49%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.15%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of unmanned aircrafts had gained 5.21% over the past month. This has outpaced the Aerospace sector's loss of 4.9% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.57% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AVAV as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be December 4, 2018. In that report, analysts expect AVAV to post earnings of $0.16 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 44.83%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $74.83 million, up 1.35% from the year-ago period.

AVAV's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $1.36 per share and revenue of $307.72 million. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +25.93% and +2.95%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AVAV. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. AVAV is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, AVAV is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 72.43. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 19.77, so we one might conclude that AVAV is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that AVAV currently has a PEG ratio of 3.62. 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. The Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.19 as of yesterday's close.

The Aerospace - Defense Equipment industry is part of the Aerospace sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 63, putting it in the top 25% 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.

To follow AVAV in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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