Whirlpool (WHR) Falls More Steeply Than Broader Market: What Investors Need to Know

Whirlpool (WHR) ended the recent trading session at $69.13, demonstrating a -2.3% change from the preceding day's closing price. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily loss of 0.54%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.03%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.18%.

The maker of Maytag, KitchenAid and other appliances's shares have seen a decrease of 12.5% over the last month, not keeping up with the Consumer Discretionary sector's loss of 2.3% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.58%.

The investment community will be paying close attention to the earnings performance of Whirlpool in its upcoming release. On that day, Whirlpool is projected to report earnings of $0.77 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 54.71%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $3.51 billion, showing a 3.2% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.

Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $6.49 per share and revenue of $15.3 billion, indicating changes of +4.17% and -1.48%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Whirlpool. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, upbeat changes in estimates indicate analysts' favorable outlook on the business health and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To utilize this, we have created the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model that integrates these estimate changes and provides a functional 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 8.61% lower. Currently, Whirlpool is carrying a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Whirlpool is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.9. This represents no noticeable deviation compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 10.9.

Investors should also note that WHR has a PEG ratio of 1.12 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 Household Appliances industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.12 as trading concluded yesterday.

The Household Appliances industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This industry, currently bearing a Zacks Industry Rank of 14, finds itself in the top 6% echelons 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.

Keep in mind to rely on Zacks.com to watch all these stock-impacting metrics, and more, in the succeeding trading sessions.