BP (BP) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
BP (BP) closed at $40.67 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.17% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.56% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 1.77%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 2.2%.
Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and gas company had gained 6.01% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 10.61% and the S&P 500's gain of 6.41% in that time.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from BP as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 5, 2019. On that day, BP is projected to report earnings of $0.78 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 21.88%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $60.72 billion, down 13.29% from the prior-year quarter.
Any recent changes to analyst estimates for BP should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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. 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.
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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 13.35% lower. BP is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.
Valuation is also important, so investors should note that BP has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.71 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 10.62.
Also, we should mention that BP has a PEG ratio of 1.79. 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. Oil and Gas - Integrated - International stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.19 based on yesterday's closing prices.
The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 249, putting it in the bottom 3% 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.
You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.
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