Cameco (CCJ) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Cameco (CCJ) closed at $22.51, marking a +1.08% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.46% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.18%.

Heading into today, shares of the uranium producer had lost 5.52% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's loss of 3.64% and outpacing the S&P 500's loss of 6.94% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Cameco as it approaches its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of -$0.03, up 62.5% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $0.11 per share and revenue of $1.45 billion. These totals would mark changes of +155% and +23.07%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Cameco. 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.

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.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Cameco is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Looking at its valuation, Cameco is holding a Forward P/E ratio of 202.46. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 7.75, so we one might conclude that Cameco is trading at a premium comparatively.

The Mining - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 104, which puts it in the top 42% 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.

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

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