Murphy USA (MUSA) closed the most recent trading day at $277.48, moving +0.01% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 2.11%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 1.54%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.3%.

Coming into today, shares of the gasoline station operator had lost 4.38% in the past month. In that same time, the Oils-Energy sector lost 11.61%, while the S&P 500 lost 8.19%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Murphy USA as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Murphy USA to post earnings of $6.24 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 56.78%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $6.45 billion, up 40.23% from the year-ago period.

MUSA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $24.09 per share and revenue of $24.26 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +61.46% and +39.72%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Murphy USA. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 12.6% higher. Murphy USA is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Murphy USA has a Forward P/E ratio of 11.52 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 5.03, which means Murphy USA is trading at a premium to the group.

The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 10, which puts it in the top 4% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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