Murphy Oil Corporation


MUR

is slated to report fourth-quarter 2020 financial results on Jan 28, before the opening bell. The company has a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 25.26%, on average.

Let’s discuss the factors that are likely to reflect on the impending quarterly results.

Factors to Consider

With the restoration of commercial activities, Murphy Oil might have witnessed an improvement in crude oil demand. Also, the company’s cost-saving initiatives to preserve liquidity and cash flow are likely to aid the results. While it has a well-hedged portfolio to safeguard its interest against weakness in crude oil prices, the current volatility in the market is likely to have negatively impacted the quarterly performance. Also, storms left an adverse effect on the production volumes in the fourth quarter.

Q4 Expectations

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for fourth-quarter 2020 sales is pegged at $472.17 million, indicating a decline of 25.93% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure. The consensus estimate for fourth-quarter loss of 9 cents per share implies a 156.25% plunge from the prior-year period’s reported number.

The company expects fourth-quarter total crude oil production in the band of 146-154 thousand barrels of oil equivalents per day.

What Our Quantitative Model Predicts

Our proven model does not conclusively predict an earnings beat for Murphy Oil this time around. The combination of a positive

Earnings ESP

and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy) or 3 (Hold) increases the chances of beating estimates. But that is not the case here as you see below.

Earnings ESP:

Murphy Oil has an Earnings ESP of -114.29%. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our

Earnings ESP Filter

.

Zacks Rank:

Murphy Oil currently has a Zacks Rank #3. You can see


the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here


.

Stocks to Consider

Here are some players from the industry that have the right combination of elements to beat on earnings the to-be-reported quarter.

Viper Energy Partners LP


VNOM

is set to release fourth-quarter 2020 numbers on Feb 9. It has an Earnings ESP of +118.18% and a Zacks Rank of 1 at present.

Diamondback Energy, Inc.


FANG

is set to release fourth-quarter 2020 results on Feb 22. It has an Earnings ESP of +2.96% and is presently Zacks #2 Ranked.

Earthstone Energy, Inc.


ESTE

is set to release fourth-quarter 2020 numbers on Mar 10. It has an Earnings ESP of +4.35% and a Zacks Rank of 3 at present.

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