Union Pacific (UNP) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Union Pacific (UNP) closed at $247.47, marking a +0.57% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.07%. At the same time, the Dow added 1.4%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.49%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the railroad had gained 2.76% over the past month. This has outpaced the Transportation sector's loss of 3.19% and the S&P 500's loss of 2.08% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Union Pacific as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Union Pacific is projected to report earnings of $2.68 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 13.56%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.65 billion, up 9.85% from the year-ago period.

UNP's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.98 per share and revenue of $21.7 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +21.86% and +11.09%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Union Pacific. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.16% lower within the past month. Union Pacific is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Union Pacific is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 24.66. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 24.23.

Investors should also note that UNP has a PEG ratio of 2.47 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. UNP's industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.22 as of yesterday's close.

The Transportation - Rail industry is part of the Transportation sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 235, putting it in the bottom 8% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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