Constellation Brands (STZ) Outpaces Stock Market Gains: What You Should Know

Constellation Brands (STZ) closed the most recent trading day at $204.02, moving +1.86% from the previous trading session. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.63%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.68%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.64%.

Heading into today, shares of the wine, liquor and beer company had lost 12.41% over the past month, lagging the Consumer Staples sector's gain of 1.08% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.95% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from STZ as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 4, 2019. In that report, analysts expect STZ to post earnings of $2.06 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 3%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $1.91 billion, up 6.28% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $9.43 per share and revenue of $8.14 billion. These totals would mark changes of +8.14% and +7.28%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for STZ. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.08% higher within the past month. STZ currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, STZ is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 21.25. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 21.86.

It is also worth noting that STZ currently has a PEG ratio of 1.94. 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. Beverages - Alcohol stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.84 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Beverages - Alcohol industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 219, which puts it in the bottom 15% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.

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