Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) closed at $63.01, marking a -0.38% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.43%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.02%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.32%.

Coming into today, shares of the oil and natural gas company had gained 21.22% in the past month. In that same time, the Oils-Energy sector gained 10.65%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.65%.

Canadian Natural Resources will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Canadian Natural Resources to post earnings of $1.92 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 137.04%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $7.09 billion, up 35.83% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $6.75 per share and revenue of $26.33 billion, which would represent changes of +35.27% and +9.69%, respectively, from the prior year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Canadian Natural Resources. 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.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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.

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 15.49% higher. Canadian Natural Resources currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Canadian Natural Resources has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.37 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 5.69, so we one might conclude that Canadian Natural Resources is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that CNQ has a PEG ratio of 0.47. 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 0.47 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 107, putting it in the top 43% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.

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The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.