Capital One (COF) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

Capital One (COF) closed the most recent trading day at $106.46, moving -0.75% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.45%. At the same time, the Dow added 2.15%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.17%.

Heading into today, shares of the credit card issuer and bank had lost 9.71% over the past month, lagging the Finance sector's loss of 6.21% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.71% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Capital One as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Capital One is projected to report earnings of $5.11 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 33.72%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $8.23 billion, up 11.67% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $20.14 per share and revenue of $33.6 billion, which would represent changes of -25.27% and +10.41%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Capital One. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.03% lower. Capital One is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Capital One is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 5.33. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.35.

Investors should also note that COF has a PEG ratio of 0.31 right now. 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. Financial - Consumer Loans stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.31 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Financial - Consumer Loans industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, putting it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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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