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United States Steel (X) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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United States Steel (X - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $26.11, moving +1.36% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.42%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 5.16%.

Coming into today, shares of the steel maker had lost 15.9% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 1.62%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.27%.

United States Steel will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.33, down 89.18% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $4.1 billion, down 21.62% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $2.64 per share and revenue of $16.7 billion, which would represent changes of -73.47% and -20.7%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for United States Steel. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 51.44% higher. United States Steel currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, United States Steel currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.77. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.46.

The Steel - Producers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 29, putting it in the top 12% 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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