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

Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ) closed at $65.45 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.52% move from the prior day. This change outpaced the S&P 500's 1.12% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 1.01%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 0.08%.

Heading into today, shares of the oil and natural gas company had gained 11.52% over the past month, outpacing the Oils-Energy sector's gain of 5.27% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.63% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Canadian Natural Resources as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $1.88, up 132.1% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7.12 billion, up 36.53% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $7.07 per share and revenue of $27.36 billion. These totals would mark changes of +41.68% and +14%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Canadian Natural Resources. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-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. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 2.28% higher. Canadian Natural Resources is currently a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Canadian Natural Resources has a Forward P/E ratio of 9.12 right now. This represents a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.3.

It is also worth noting that CNQ currently has a PEG ratio of 0.46. 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. CNQ's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.46 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 52, putting it in the top 21% 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.

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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