APA (APA) closed the most recent trading day at $24.60, moving -1.91% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.58%.
Shares of the oil and natural gas producer have appreciated by 15.79% over the course of the past month, outperforming the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 3.53%, and the S&P 500's gain of 3.68%.
Investors will be eagerly watching for the performance of APA in its upcoming earnings disclosure. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.71, indicating a 29% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $2.11 billion, indicating a 16.8% downward movement from the same quarter last year.
Regarding the entire year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates forecast earnings of $3.31 per share and revenue of $9.25 billion, indicating changes of -12.2% and -4.97%, respectively, compared to the previous year.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for APA. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the business outlook.
Our research reveals that these estimate alterations are directly linked with the stock price performance in the near future. 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, running from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), holds an admirable track record of superior performance, independently audited, with #1 stocks contributing an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.3% higher within the past month. As of now, APA holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that APA has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.57 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.09, which means APA is trading at a discount to the group.
Meanwhile, APA's PEG ratio is currently 7.21. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States was holding an average PEG ratio of 0.81 at yesterday's closing price.
The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 227, placing it within the bottom 9% of over 250 industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank assesses the strength of our separate industry groups by calculating the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks contained 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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APA Corporation (APA): Free Stock Analysis ReportThis article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).
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