Realty Income Corp. (O) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Realty Income Corp. (O) closed at $69.19 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.76% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 3.06%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 2.68%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.08%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the real estate investment trust had lost 0.12% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Finance sector's loss of 6.6% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.31% in that time.

Realty Income Corp. will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.98, up 11.36% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $809.49 million, up 74.35% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $3.92 per share and revenue of $3.27 billion, which would represent changes of +9.19% and +56.98%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Realty Income Corp.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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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, 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.04% higher within the past month. Realty Income Corp. is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Realty Income Corp. currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.33. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.74, so we one might conclude that Realty Income Corp. is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that O currently has a PEG ratio of 4.9. 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. O's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.91 as of yesterday's close.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Retail industry is part of the Finance sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 73, which puts it in the top 29% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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