CF Industries (CF) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

CF Industries (CF) closed the most recent trading day at $92.07, moving -1.27% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.46%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.17%.

Coming into today, shares of the fertilizer maker had lost 14.02% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 3.64%, while the S&P 500 lost 6.94%.

CF Industries will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, CF Industries is projected to report earnings of $6.14 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 438.6%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.69 billion, up 132.6% from the year-ago period.

CF's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $18.95 per share and revenue of $12.18 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +346.93% and +86.25%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for CF Industries. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 5.91% higher within the past month. CF Industries is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that CF Industries has a Forward P/E ratio of 4.92 right now. This valuation marks a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 5.1.

We can also see that CF currently has a PEG ratio of 0.82. 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. CF's industry had an average PEG ratio of 0.65 as of yesterday's close.

The Fertilizers industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 32, which puts it in the top 13% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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