Weight Watchers International (WW) closed at $24.78 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.67% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.62%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.25%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.74%.
Heading into today, shares of the weight-loss program operator had gained 26.32% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Discretionary sector's gain of 1.02% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.8% in that time.
Investors will be hoping for strength from WW as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, WW is projected to report earnings of $0.65 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 35.64%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $375.06 million, down 8.45% from the year-ago period.
Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $1.53 per share and revenue of $1.40 billion. These totals would mark changes of -52.04% and -7.36%, respectively, from last year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for WW. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.
Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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 0.25% higher within the past month. WW currently has a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that WW has a Forward P/E ratio of 16.47 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.39, so we one might conclude that WW is trading at a premium comparatively.
Meanwhile, WW's PEG ratio is currently 1.32. 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. The Consumer Services - Miscellaneous industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.31 as of yesterday's close.
The Consumer Services - Miscellaneous industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 19, putting it in the top 8% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
Weight Watchers International Inc (WW): Free Stock Analysis Report
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