The latest trading session saw McKesson (MCK) ending at $643.69, denoting a +0.47% adjustment from its last day's close. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.91%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.5%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 1.96%.

The prescription drug distributor's shares have seen an increase of 7.67% over the last month, surpassing the Medical sector's loss of 1.88% and the S&P 500's loss of 7.38%.

The upcoming earnings release of McKesson will be of great interest to investors. On that day, McKesson is projected to report earnings of $9.81 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 58.74%. At the same time, our most recent consensus estimate is projecting a revenue of $93.09 billion, reflecting a 21.92% rise from the equivalent quarter last year.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $32.76 per share and a revenue of $360.63 billion, indicating changes of +19.39% and +16.73%, respectively, from the former year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for McKesson. 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.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 0.04% downward. McKesson is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that McKesson has a Forward P/E ratio of 19.56 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.22, so one might conclude that McKesson is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can additionally observe that MCK currently boasts a PEG ratio of 1.37. 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. Medical - Dental Supplies stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.76 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Medical - Dental Supplies industry is part of the Medical sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 86, positioning it in the top 35% of all 250+ industries.

The strength of our individual industry groups is measured by the Zacks Industry Rank, which is calculated based on the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within these 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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McKesson Corporation (MCK) : Free Stock Analysis Report

This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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