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

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United States Steel (X - Free Report) closed at $14.66 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.76% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.13%. At the same time, the Dow lost 0.13%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.24%.

Heading into today, shares of the steel maker had gained 6.2% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's gain of 7.12% and outpacing the S&P 500's gain of 4.13% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from X as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect X to post earnings of $0.44 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 69.86%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.57 billion, down 0.97% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $1.16 per share and revenue of $13.96 billion, which would represent changes of -78.36% and -1.53%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for X. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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, 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 27.62% lower. X is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #5 (Strong Sell).

Digging into valuation, X currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 12.6. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 10.48, which means X is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that X has a PEG ratio of 1.57. 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 Steel - Producers was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.57 at yesterday's closing price.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 221, putting it in the bottom 14% 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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