APA (APA) Rises As Market Takes a Dip: Key Facts

In the latest close session, APA (APA) was up +2.76% at $39.11. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.51% loss on the day. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.97%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.01%.

The stock of oil and natural gas producer has risen by 30.88% in the past month, leading the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 9.4% and the S&P 500's loss of 3.63%.

The upcoming earnings release of APA will be of great interest to investors. The company's upcoming EPS is projected at $0.58, signifying a 45.28% drop compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Alongside, our most recent consensus estimate is anticipating revenue of $1.91 billion, indicating a 26.99% downward movement from the same quarter last year.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.15 per share and revenue of $7.41 billion. These totals would mark changes of -42.97% and -19.68%, respectively, from last year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for APA should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. Hence, positive alterations in estimates signify analyst optimism regarding the business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.32% higher. APA currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, APA is presently being traded at a Forward P/E ratio of 17.68. This represents a premium compared to its industry average Forward P/E of 16.83.

We can additionally observe that APA currently boasts a PEG ratio of 16.84. 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. As the market closed yesterday, the Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry was having an average PEG ratio of 1.6.

The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 146, putting it in the bottom 41% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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