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

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APA (APA - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $37.23, moving -1.25% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.09%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.07%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.98%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the oil and natural gas producer had gained 10.85% over the past month. This has outpaced the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 8.83% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.59% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from APA as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be May 3, 2023. The company is expected to report EPS of $1, down 47.92% from the prior-year quarter. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $1.93 billion, down 27.68% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $5.86 per share and revenue of $8.57 billion. These totals would mark changes of -23.7% and -21.86%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for APA. 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 7.81% lower within the past month. APA is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

In terms of valuation, APA is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 6.44. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 6.67, so we one might conclude that APA is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that APA currently has a PEG ratio of 2.65. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 0.43 as of yesterday's close.

The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - United States industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 224, which puts it in the bottom 12% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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