| Earnings season can make investing tricky. Many traders try to time trades based on earnings announcements, but usually find such trading is difficult and risky. It is often better to take a look at how the market has reacted to a company’s results a few weeks after the initial announcement. Alliant Techsystems Inc. (ATK) released its earnings filing on 11/12. The company reported a change in quarter-over-quarter sales of 10.62% and posted an EPS (trailing twelve months) of 5.23. {loadposition link_newslink1} |
| | | {loadposition livevideopromo} | | | | | | {loadposition homeaccordion2}
| | | {loadposition contentad} | | | | | By now the market has had time to settle in and look closely at the numbers. A stock’s performance in the few weeks following an announcement, compared to other stocks in its industry, the industry as a whole, and market as a whole, really tells you how investors and analysts felt about the announcement. Compared to the rest of the “Aerospace/Defense Products & Services” industry Since the ATK announcement (about 30 days ago), the stock has posted a 6.32% gain. Over that same period, the stock’s industry, Aerospace/Defense Products & Services, saw a 4.34% gain. That means ATK that has outperformed its industry as a whole 45.62% since the earnings announcement. Small differences aren’t significant, but when the spread is large it indicates the stock is either much more or much less favored than its group as a whole. Compared to peers Another way to gauge performance is look at a stock compared to other stocks in its industry with similar market caps. ATK peer Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) has seen a .76% stock price gain over about the last month, while another peer, SAIC, Inc. (SAI) saw a 1.04% gain. So with a return of 6.32%, Alliant Techsystems Inc. outgained ESLT and beat SAI’s price performance over the last month. Honeywell International Inc. (HON) is one of the largest stocks in the industry in terms of market cap, and over the same period has returned 6.35% in price. Compared to the S&P 500 Index Finally, let’s see how Alliant Techsystems Inc. stock performance compares to the rest of the market by looking at it compared to the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (.INX). Since 11/12, the S&P 500 index has returned around 1.2%, and again, ATK saw about a 6.32% gain during that time. Not bad. So by putting the returns in context by these comparisons, we can see how a stock’s performance since earnings really measures up and make our investing decisions on ATK accordingly. {loadposition link_nowtime}
{loadposition followus} | 
