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United States Steel (X) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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United States Steel (X - Free Report) closed at $16.40 in the latest trading session, marking a -1.56% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.16% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.42%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.03%.

Heading into today, shares of the steel maker had lost 15.77% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's gain of 4.5% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.89% in that time.

X will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 2, 2019. On that day, X is projected to report earnings of $0.17 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 46.88%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.25 billion, up 3.05% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.17 per share and revenue of $14.02 billion. These totals would mark changes of -59.51% and -1.12%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for X. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

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 7.55% lower within the past month. X is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that X has a Forward P/E ratio of 7.68 right now. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 9.93.

Meanwhile, X's PEG ratio is currently 0.96. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The Steel - Producers was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.19 at yesterday's closing price.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 77, which puts it in the top 31% 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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