United Rentals (URI – Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $289.76, or -1.92% from the previous trading session. That move lagged the S&P 500’s daily 1.13% loss. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.01% and the Nasdaq, a technology-heavy index, lost 0.18%.
Prior to today’s session, shares of the equipment rental company were down 3.94% in the past month. That was narrower than the construction sector’s loss of 8.12% and the S&P 500’s loss of 7.59% during that time.
United Rentals will be looking to show strength ahead of its next earnings release. On that day, United Rentals is expected to post earnings of $8.88 per share, which would represent 34.95% year-over-year growth. Our most recent consensus estimate calls for quarterly revenue of $3.06 billion, up 18.05% from the prior year period.
For the full year, our Zacks consensus estimates call for earnings of $31.73 per share and revenue of $11.58 billion, which would represent swings of +43.83% and +19, 17%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Any recent changes in analyst estimates for United Rentals should also be noted by investors. These revisions generally reflect the latest short-term trading trends, which may change frequently. With this in mind, we can view positive estimate revisions as a sign of optimism about the company’s business outlook.
Based on our research, we believe that these estimate revisions are directly related to the team’s close stock movements. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that takes into account these estimation changes and provides an actionable rating system.
The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive track record of outperformance verified by external audits, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988 Over the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has increased by 0.22%. United Rentals currently has a Zacks rating of #1 (Strong Buy).
As for its valuation, United Rentals holds a Forward P/E ratio of 9.31. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 11.31, so we could conclude that United Rentals is trading at a discount comparatively.
Investors should also note that the URI has a PEG ratio of 0.53 at this time. This measure is used in the same way as the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the growth rate of the stock’s expected earnings. The Construction Products – Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.02 as of yesterday’s close.
The Building Products – Miscellaneous industry is part of the Construction sector. This group has a Zacks industry ranking of 59, which places it in the top 24% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rankings are ranked from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Ranking of individual companies in each of these industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and more, at Zacks.com.