Keysight (KEYS) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

This story originally appeared on Zacks

Keysight (KEYS) closed the most recent trading day at $164.02, moving +1.8% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500’s daily gain of 2.44%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.65%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.28%.

Heading into today, shares of the electronic measurement technology company had lost 22.09% over the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector’s loss of 16.14% and the S&P 500’s loss of 9.65% in that time.

Keysight will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 17, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.56, up 9.09% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.24 billion, up 5.34% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $6.92 per share and revenue of $5.27 billion. These totals would mark changes of +11.08% and +6.67%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Keysight. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company’s business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 0.31% higher within the past month. Keysight is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, Keysight is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 23.3. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 20.73, so we one might conclude that Keysight is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that KEYS currently has a PEG ratio of 2.73. 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. KEYS’s industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.89 as of yesterday’s close.

The Electronics – Measuring Instruments industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 102, putting it in the top 40% 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.

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

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Keysight Technologies Inc. (KEYS): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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