Dave & Buster's (PLAY) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Dave & Buster's (PLAY) closed at $37.36 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.81% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.42%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.97%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.07%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the owner of Dave & Buster's, a chain of restaurants and arcades had gained 13.06% over the past month. This has outpaced the Retail-Wholesale sector's gain of 7% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.69% in that time.

Dave & Buster's will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.02, down 4.67% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $432.93 million, up 14.64% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.40 per share and revenue of $1.77 billion. These totals would mark changes of +53.85% and +35.39%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Dave & Buster's. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-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. 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 has moved 2.16% lower. Dave & Buster's currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Dave & Buster's currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 10.9. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 18.13, so we one might conclude that Dave & Buster's is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that PLAY has a PEG ratio of 0.73 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. Retail - Restaurants stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 2.03 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Retail - Restaurants industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 189, putting it in the bottom 25% 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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Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. (PLAY) : Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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