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Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ - Free Report) closed at $52.82 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.65% move from the prior day. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.94%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.63%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.55%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and natural gas company had gained 21.93% over the past month. This has outpaced the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 11.08% and the S&P 500's loss of 4.63% in that time.

Canadian Natural Resources will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be March 3, 2022. On that day, Canadian Natural Resources is projected to report earnings of $1.58 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 1216.67%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $7.19 billion, up 86.76% from the prior-year quarter.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Canadian Natural Resources. 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. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, actionable rating system.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 8.99% higher within the past month. Canadian Natural Resources is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Canadian Natural Resources has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.59 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 5.71, which means Canadian Natural Resources is trading at a premium to the group.

Also, we should mention that CNQ has a PEG ratio of 0.68. 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. CNQ's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.68 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - Canadian industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 45, putting it in the top 18% 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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