In the latest trading session, Albertsons Companies, Inc. (ACI) closed at $35.19, marking a -0.68% move from the previous day. This change was narrower than the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.9%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.86%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.21%.

Coming into today, shares of the company had gained 11.35% in the past month. In that same time, the Consumer Staples sector lost 0.38%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.2%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Albertsons Companies, Inc. as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Albertsons Companies, Inc. to post earnings of $0.55 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 16.67%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $15.96 billion, up 3.58% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.59 per share and revenue of $69.78 billion. These totals would mark changes of -20.06% and +0.12%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Albertsons Companies, Inc.These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. Albertsons Companies, Inc. is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

In terms of valuation, Albertsons Companies, Inc. is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 13.66. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 21.57, which means Albertsons Companies, Inc. is trading at a discount to the group.

Investors should also note that ACI has a PEG ratio of 1.14 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Consumer Products - Staples was holding an average PEG ratio of 3.94 at yesterday's closing price.

The Consumer Products - Staples industry is part of the Consumer Staples sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 215, which puts it in the bottom 16% 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.

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