ConocoPhillips (COP) Stock Down on Falling Oil Prices
NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- ConocoPhillips (COP) - Get Report stock is down by 1.76% to $54.79 in early afternoon trading on Monday, as oil prices fall today.
WTI Crude is declining by 0.63% to $44.01 per barrel, while Brent crude is slipping by 0.32% to $47.27 per barrel, according to the CNBC.com index.
Near record levels of oil production in Russia and Saudi Arabia have weighed on the oil market, Reuters reports.
"The spread weakness is being driven mainly by a large and increasing level of supply," Jim Ritterbusch of Ritterbusch & Associates told Reuters. "More specifically, an expected supply upswing at Cushing may be spurring some of the spread action."
ConocoPhillips is an independent exploration and production company based in Houston.
Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CONOCOPHILLIPS as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:
We rate CONOCOPHILLIPS (COP) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed - some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. Among the primary strengths of the company is its solid financial position based on a variety of debt and liquidity measures that we have evaluated. At the same time, however, we also find weaknesses including feeble growth in the company's earnings per share, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity.
Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:
- COP, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 37.2%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 39.9%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
- Despite currently having a low debt-to-equity ratio of 0.56, it is higher than that of the industry average, inferring that management of debt levels may need to be evaluated further. Regardless of the somewhat mixed results with the debt-to-equity ratio, the company's quick ratio of 0.83 is weak.
- The share price of CONOCOPHILLIPS has not done very well: it is down 19.47% and has underperformed the S&P 500, in part reflecting the company's sharply declining earnings per share when compared to the year-earlier quarter. The fact that the stock is now selling for less than others in its industry in relation to its current earnings is not reason enough to justify a buy rating at this time.
- The gross profit margin for CONOCOPHILLIPS is currently lower than what is desirable, coming in at 29.54%. It has decreased significantly from the same period last year. Along with this, the net profit margin of -14.74% is significantly below that of the industry average.
- Net operating cash flow has significantly decreased to $1,934.00 million or 53.73% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower.
- You can view the full analysis from the report here: COP
Any reference to TheStreet Ratings and its underlying recommendation does not reflect the opinion of Jim Cramer, TheStreet or any of its contributors.