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Murphy USA (MUSA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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Murphy USA (MUSA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $290.77, moving -1.83% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.75%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.55%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.01%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the gasoline station operator had lost 3.24% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Oils-Energy sector's loss of 5.74% and lagged the S&P 500's gain of 3.49% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Murphy USA as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Murphy USA is projected to report earnings of $3.78 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 10.64%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $5.65 billion, up 18.54% from the year-ago period.

MUSA's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $26.30 per share and revenue of $23.73 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +76.27% and +36.66%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Murphy USA. 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.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 3.79% higher. Murphy USA is currently a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Investors should also note Murphy USA's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 11.26. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.08.

The Oil and Gas - Refining and Marketing 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 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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