NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Exxon Mobil (XOM) - Get Report shares are up 0.96% to $85.21 in afternoon trading on Friday as the oil sector benefits from oil prices that are rallying today on reports that the U.S. rig count fell last week.

Industry watch group Baker Hughes (BHI) reported that the number of U.S. rigs actively drilling for oil fell by 56 to 1,069 last week, falling 734 active rigs below of the 1,803 rigs that were active at this same time last year.

Industry standard Brent crude for April delivery is up 1.07% to $55.01 per barrel while West Texas crude is also rallying, up 5.23% to 46.26.

Crude on the New York Mercantile Exchange reached six year lows earlier this week before rallying Wednesday after the Fed cut its economic growth outlook, which sent the dollar tumbling and oil prices in turn climbing.

TheStreet Ratings team rates EXXON MOBIL CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C+. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate EXXON MOBIL CORP (XOM) 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. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its reasonable valuation levels and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including weak operating cash flow, poor profit margins and disappointing return on equity."

Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows:

• XOM's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.17 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that XOM's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.51, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs.
• XOM, with its decline in revenue, slightly underperformed the industry average of 19.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues fell by 22.6%. Weakness in the company's revenue seems to have hurt the bottom line, decreasing earnings per share.
• The gross profit margin for EXXON MOBIL CORP is rather low; currently it is at 17.91%. It has decreased from the same quarter the previous year. Regardless of the weak results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of 8.63% is above that of the industry average.
• Net operating cash flow has decreased to $7,415.00 million or 27.36% 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: XOM Ratings Report

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