Why Earnings Season Could Be Great for Murphy Oil (MUR)

Zacks

Investors are always looking for stocks that are poised to beat at earnings season and Murphy Oil Corporation MUR may be one such company. The firm has earnings coming up pretty soon, and events are shaping up quite nicely for their report.

That is because Murphy Oil is seeing favorable earnings estimate revision activity as of late, which is generally a precursor to an earnings beat. After all, analysts raising estimates right before earnings—with the most up-to-date information possible—is a pretty good indicator of some favorable trends underneath the surface for MUR in this report.

In fact, the Most Accurate Estimate for the current quarter is currently at 4 cents per share for MUR, compared to a broader Zacks Consensus Estimate of 2 cents per share. This suggests that analysts have very recently bumped up their estimates for MUR, giving the stock a Zacks Earnings ESP of +61.54% heading into earnings season.

Murphy Oil Corporation Price and EPS Surprise

Why is this Important?

A positive reading for the Zacks Earnings ESP has proven to be very powerful in producing both positive surprises, and outperforming the market. Our recent 10 year backtest shows that stocks that have a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) or better show a positive surprise nearly 70% of the time, and have returned over 28% on average in annual returns (see more Top Earnings ESP stocks here).

Given that MUR has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) and an ESP in positive territory, investors might want to consider this stock ahead of earnings. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Clearly, recent earnings estimate revisions suggest that good things are ahead for Murphy Oil, and that a beat might be in the cards for the upcoming report.

Don’t Even Think About Buying Bitcoin Until You Read This

The most popular cryptocurrency skyrocketed last year, giving some investors the chance to bank 20X returns or even more. Those gains, however, came with serious volatility and risk. Bitcoin sank 25% or more 3 times in 2017.

Zacks’ has just released a new Special Report to help readers capitalize on the explosive profit potential of Bitcoin and the other cryptocurrencies with significantly less volatility than buying them directly.

See 4 crypto-related stocks now >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report

To read this article on Zacks.com click here.

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply