ConocoPhillips (COP) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

Zacks Equity Research
Updated
Cohen & Steers (CNS) reported earnings 30 days ago. What's next for the stock? We take a look at earnings estimates for some clues.

ConocoPhillips (COP) closed at $72.49 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.14% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.04% loss on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.26%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.48%.

Coming into today, shares of the energy company had lost 3.68% in the past month. In that same time, the Oils-Energy sector lost 2.31%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.53%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from COP as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be October 25, 2018. In that report, analysts expect COP to post earnings of $1.17 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 631.25%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $9.46 billion, up 31.42% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $4.58 per share and revenue of $37.50 billion, which would represent changes of +663.33% and +15.08%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for COP should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.74% higher within the past month. COP is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Digging into valuation, COP currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 15.84. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 16.21, which means COP is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that COP has a PEG ratio of 1.76. 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 Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.7 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 66, putting it in the top 26% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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