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In the latest trading session, Cerner (CERN) closed at $92.55, marking a -0.1% move from the previous day. This move was narrower than the S&P 500’s daily loss of 1.94%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.07%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.39%.

Heading into today, shares of the health care information technology company had gained 25.56% over the past month, outpacing the Medical sector’s gain of 2.88% and the S&P 500’s gain of 5.72% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Cerner as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Cerner to post earnings of $0.88 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 12.82%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.49 billion, up 6.53% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Cerner. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.14% higher. Cerner is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Cerner currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.16. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry’s average Forward P/E of 24.49.

Meanwhile, CERN’s PEG ratio is currently 1.89. 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 Medical Info Systems industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.89 as of yesterday’s close.

The Medical Info Systems industry is part of the Medical sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 194, which puts it in the bottom 24% 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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Cerner Corporation (CERN): Free Stock Analysis Report
 
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