In the latest trading session, Marathon Oil (MRO) closed at $11.77, marking a +0.68% move from the previous day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.01%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.66%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 1.43%.
Heading into today, shares of the energy company had lost 12.89% over the past month, lagging the Oils-Energy sector's loss of 5.65% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.19% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MRO as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 12, 2020. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.08, down 46.67% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.27 billion, down 28.19% from the year-ago period.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for MRO. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.
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 105.03% higher. MRO is holding a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy) right now.
Digging into valuation, MRO currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 22.21. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.99, so we one might conclude that MRO is trading at a premium comparatively.
We can also see that MRO currently has a PEG ratio of 2.86. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.28 at yesterday's closing price.
The Oil and Gas - Integrated - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 62, putting it in the top 25% of all 250+ industries.
The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.
To follow MRO in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.
Marathon Oil Corporation (NYSE:MRO
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