Yahoo Finance The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights Halliburton, Valero Energy and Targa Resources
For Immediate Release
Chicago, IL – March 25, 2024 – Zacks.com announces the list of stocks featured in the Analyst Blog. Every day the Zacks Equity Research analysts discuss the latest news and events impacting stocks and the financial markets. Stocks recently featured in the blog include: Halliburton HAL, Valero Energy VLO and Targa Resources TRGP.
Here are highlights from Friday’s Analyst Blog:
Keep a Tab on These 3 Broker-Recommended Energy Stocks
The Energy sector is notorious for its inherent unpredictability, marked by sudden positive surges and downturns. While significant price swings have always characterized investments in oil and natural gas, the degree of uncertainty has markedly risen in recent years, especially following the COVID-19 pandemic.
For novice investors, energy market volatility makes investing a precarious and panicky activity. However, stocks like Halliburton, Valero Energy and Targa Resources are definitely worth a look, given brokers' confidence in them. Although these companies currently carry a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) each, brokers are expressing optimism about them, suggesting underlying positive trends.
You can seethe complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Why Is It Desirable to Follow Expert Opinion?
The volatility and uncertainty of oil prices make investment decisions difficult for individuals. With the future direction of the commodity's movement being anybody's guess, it might be a wise decision to go ahead with stocks preferred by analysts who have deep fundamental knowledge and understanding of the industry and its companies.
Stocks with brokerage upgrades are often in for a good day and probably more. Consequently, a downgrade may indicate rough days ahead. Whatever the movement, the market tends to react to it. Also, research shows that stocks with broker rating upgrades outperform those that aren't upgraded and they almost certainly record better results than those stocks that get downgraded.
3 Broker-Favored Stocks Worth Keeping on One's Radar
With the help of the Zacks Stock Screener, we have selected three stocks that have been given a Strong Buy/Buy rating by 75% or more brokers.
Halliburton: Houston, TX-based Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield service providers in the world, offering a variety of equipment, maintenance, and engineering and construction services to the energy, industrial and government sectors.
Investors should know that 17 of the 20 brokers providing data to Zacks on Halliburton's stock have Strong Buy recommendations. The other three ratings are two Buys and one Hold, giving the company an attractive average brokerage recommendation ('ABR') of 1.17 on a scale of 1 to 5 (Strong Buy to Strong Sell).
Annual earnings are forecast to go up 9.6% this year and rise another 16.8% in 2025 to $4 per share. Moreover, sales are projected to climb 5.7% in 2024 and rise another 8.2% in 2025 to $26.3 billion. Finally, the average price target of Zacks is pegged at $47.40 a share, which suggests a 23% upside for HAL stock from the current levels. So far this year, Halliburton stock is up a modest 6%, with an upside looking more likely.
Valero Energy: San Antonio, TX-based Valero Energy is the largest independent refiner and marketer of petroleum products in the United States. The company has a refining capacity of 3.1 million barrels per day across 15 refineries located throughout the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Valero's stock has catapulted nearly 32% this year. The company's performance continues to impress, moving past its Zacks average price target of $151.20 by roughly 13% at the moment after climbing more than 22% over the last month alone.
Even after such an extensive rally, VLO's stock has only one Strong Sell broker rating, with 13 of them still strongly recommending the company's shares. Even after including three hold ratings, Valero's 1.59 ABR is still intriguing. As far as earnings are concerned, VLO's fourth-quarter earnings of $3.55 per share beat the consensus estimate of $2.95 a share by 20.3%.
Targa Resources: Targa Resources is a premier energy infrastructure company. A leading provider of integrated midstream services in North America, this Houston, TX-based operator primarily derives its revenues from gathering, compressing, treating, processing and selling natural gas.
An under-the-radar energy stock, TRGP has a very favorable ABR of 1.06. Currently, 16 brokers have a Strong Buy rating on Targa Resources' stock with one Buy rating. The company has gained 12.3% year to date.
Total sales are projected to jump 22.4% in 2024 and leap another 10.5% in 2025 to $21.7 billion. Earnings are anticipated to rise 55.5% this year and jump another 18.2% in 2025 to $6.72 a share.
Why Haven't You Looked at Zacks' Top Stocks?
Since 2000, our top stock-picking strategies have blown away the S&P's +7.0 average gain per year. Amazingly, they soared with average gains of +44.9%, +48.4% and +55.2% per year.
Today you can access their live picks without cost or obligation.
See Stocks Free >>
Media Contact
Zacks Investment Research
800-767-3771 ext. 9339
support@zacks.com
https://www.zacks.com
Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Inherent in any investment is the potential for loss. This material is being provided for informational purposes only and nothing herein constitutes investment, legal, accounting or tax advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell or hold a security. No recommendation or advice is being given as to whether any investment is suitable for a particular investor. It should not be assumed that any investments in securities, companies, sectors or markets identified and described were or will be profitable. All information is current as of the date of herein and is subject to change without notice. Any views or opinions expressed may not reflect those of the firm as a whole. Zacks Investment Research does not engage in investment banking, market making or asset management activities of any securities. These returns are from hypothetical portfolios consisting of stocks with Zacks Rank = 1 that were rebalanced monthly with zero transaction costs. These are not the returns of actual portfolios of stocks. The S&P 500 is an unmanaged index. Visit https://www.zacks.com/performance for information about the performance numbers displayed in this press release.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Halliburton Company (HAL) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Valero Energy Corporation (VLO) : Free Stock Analysis Report
Targa Resources, Inc. (TRGP) : Free Stock Analysis Report
