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

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In the latest trading session, United States Steel (X - Free Report) closed at $23.15, marking a +1% move from the previous day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 0.62% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.55%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.03%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the steel maker had lost 8.79% over the past month. This has lagged the Basic Materials sector's loss of 0.06% and the S&P 500's gain of 0.39% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from United States Steel as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect United States Steel to post earnings of $5.15 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 2007.41%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $5.71 billion, up 122.82% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $15.11 per share and revenue of $20.31 billion, which would represent changes of +423.55% and +108.5%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for United States Steel. 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.

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.

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 2.24% higher within the past month. United States Steel is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, United States Steel is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 1.52. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 3.79, which means United States Steel is trading at a discount to the group.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 79, which puts it in the top 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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