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BP (BP) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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BP (BP - Free Report) closed at $40.11 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.02% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.14%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.09%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.68%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and gas company had gained 5.41% over the past month. This has lagged the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 9.44% and the S&P 500's gain of 9.43% in that time.

BP will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be February 5, 2019. In that report, analysts expect BP to post earnings of $0.73 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 14.06%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $60.72 billion, down 13.29% from the year-ago period.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for BP should also be noted by investors. 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. 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 12.43% lower within the past month. BP is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

Investors should also note BP's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 12.55. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.94, which means BP is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, BP's PEG ratio is currently 1.75. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.03 at yesterday's closing price.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 250, which puts it in the bottom 3% 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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