Simon Property (SPG) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Simon Property (SPG) closed at $96.59, marking a +0.94% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.17%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the shopping mall real estate investment trust had lost 11.21% over the past month. This has lagged the Finance sector's loss of 6.21% and the S&P 500's loss of 5.71% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Simon Property as it approaches its next earnings release. On that day, Simon Property is projected to report earnings of $2.89 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 1.03%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.3 billion, up 3.39% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.73 per share and revenue of $5.26 billion, which would represent changes of -1.76% and +2.71%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Simon Property. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.1% lower. Simon Property is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Simon Property currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.16. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.57, so we one might conclude that Simon Property is trading at a discount comparatively.

Also, we should mention that SPG has a PEG ratio of 2.24. 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. SPG's industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.85 as of yesterday's close.

The REIT and Equity Trust - Retail industry is part of the Finance sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 81, putting it in the top 33% 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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