AutoNation (AN) closed at $116.58 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.66% move from the prior day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.07%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.27%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.02%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the auto retailer had lost 3.14% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Retail-Wholesale sector's loss of 4.41% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.99% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from AutoNation as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $5.95, up 23.19% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $6.87 billion, down 1.59% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $23.20 per share and revenue of $27.58 billion, which would represent changes of +27.89% and +6.71%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for AutoNation. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an 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 remained stagnant. AutoNation is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that AutoNation has a Forward P/E ratio of 4.99 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.97.

It is also worth noting that AN currently has a PEG ratio of 0.2. 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. Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 0.41 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Automotive - Retail and Whole Sales industry is part of the Retail-Wholesale sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 5, putting it in the top 2% 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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