Encana (ECA) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, Encana (ECA) closed at $5, marking a -1.77% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.46%. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.9%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.59%.

Coming into today, shares of the energy company had gained 3.04% in the past month. In that same time, the Oils-Energy sector gained 3.51%, while the S&P 500 gained 4.04%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from ECA as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect ECA to post earnings of $0.19 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 9.52%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $1.57 billion, up 59.21% from the prior-year quarter.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $0.63 per share and revenue of $6.12 billion, which would represent changes of -26.74% and +3.1%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for ECA. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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 16.99% lower within the past month. ECA currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note ECA's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 8.13. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 9.28, so we one might conclude that ECA is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that ECA currently has a PEG ratio of 1.08. 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. The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - Canadian was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.58 at yesterday's closing price.

The Oil and Gas - Exploration and Production - Canadian industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 84, which puts it in the top 33% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.