APA (APA) closed at $39.49 in the latest trading session, marking a +2.23% move from the prior day. The stock outperformed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 1.02%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.63%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.23%.
Shares of the oil and natural gas producer witnessed a gain of 12.07% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Oils-Energy sector with its gain of 5.11%, and the S&P 500's gain of 0.63%.
Analysts and investors alike will be keeping a close eye on the performance of APA in its upcoming earnings disclosure. In that report, analysts expect APA to post earnings of $0.91 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 14.15%. Meanwhile, the latest consensus estimate predicts the revenue to be $2.11 billion, indicating a 19.25% decrease compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
For the annual period, the Zacks Consensus Estimates anticipate earnings of $4.14 per share and a revenue of $8.67 billion, signifying shifts of +9.81% and -5.94%, respectively, from the last year.
It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for APA. 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 business outlook.
Empirical research indicates that these revisions in estimates have a direct correlation with impending stock price performance. To exploit this, we've formed the Zacks Rank, a quantitative model that includes these estimate changes and presents a viable 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. Over the past month, there's been a 133.98% rise in the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate. As of now, APA holds a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, APA currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.34. This indicates a discount in contrast to its industry's Forward P/E of 11.84.
The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. Currently, this industry holds a Zacks Industry Rank of 30, positioning it in the top 13% 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.
Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.
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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).