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CF Industries (CF) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, CF Industries (CF - Free Report) closed at $85.99, marking a +0.07% move from the previous day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.61%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.1%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.67%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the fertilizer maker had gained 1.8% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's gain of 10.15% and the S&P 500's gain of 8.32% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from CF Industries as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 15, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $4.13, up 11.32% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $2.81 billion, up 10.79% from the prior-year quarter.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for CF Industries should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 11.92% lower within the past month. CF Industries is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that CF Industries has a Forward P/E ratio of 6.47 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 6.6, which means CF Industries is trading at a discount to the group.

We can also see that CF currently has a PEG ratio of 1.08. 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 Fertilizers industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.89 as of yesterday's close.

The Fertilizers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 242, putting it in the bottom 4% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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