Union Pacific (UNP) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Union Pacific (UNP) closed at $247, marking a +0.24% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.28% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.14%.
Coming into today, shares of the railroad had gained 0.74% in the past month. In that same time, the Transportation sector gained 0.32%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.12%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Union Pacific as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be January 20, 2022. In that report, analysts expect Union Pacific to post earnings of $2.63 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 11.44%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.63 billion, up 9.47% from the year-ago period.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for Union Pacific should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-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. 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, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.22% higher. Union Pacific is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Union Pacific has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.94 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.94, so we one might conclude that Union Pacific is trading at a no noticeable deviation comparatively.
We can also see that UNP currently has a PEG ratio of 2.19. 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. UNP's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.86 as of yesterday's close.
The Transportation - Rail industry is part of the Transportation sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 79, which puts it in the top 31% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
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