ConocoPhillips Stock Buy Recommendation Reiterated (COP)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) has been reiterated by TheStreet Ratings as a buy with a ratings score of B. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its attractive valuation levels, good cash flow from operations, notable return on equity, growth in earnings per share and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company shows low profit margins.

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Highlights from the ratings report include:

• Net operating cash flow has significantly increased by 114.79% to $4,182.00 million when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, CONOCOPHILLIPS has also vastly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 12.39%.
• The return on equity has improved slightly when compared to the same quarter one year prior. This can be construed as a modest strength in the organization. Compared to other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, CONOCOPHILLIPS has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has exceeded that of the S&P 500.
• CONOCOPHILLIPS has improved earnings per share by 8.6% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. The company has demonstrated a pattern of positive earnings per share growth over the past two years. However, we anticipate underperformance relative to this pattern in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, CONOCOPHILLIPS increased its bottom line by earning $8.97 versus $7.61 in the prior year. For the next year, the market is expecting a contraction of 28.6% in earnings ($6.40 versus $8.97).
• COP, with its decline in revenue, underperformed when compared the industry average of 11.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly dropped by 0.6%. The declining revenue has not hurt the company's bottom line, with increasing earnings per share.

ConocoPhillips explores for, produces, transports, and markets crude oil, natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas and bitumen on a worldwide basis. The company has a P/E ratio of 6, equal to the average energy industry P/E ratioand below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. ConocoPhillips has a market cap of $68.86 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are down 3.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Thursday.

You can view the full ConocoPhillips Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

--Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff.

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

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