Last week’s pullback has investors looking for stocks to buy. One of the most popular sectors for investors to look at is the energy sector. Most of us spend more money and time at gas stations than we’d like to. It can feel like an easy way to get some of that money back. Be careful to not just blindly buy any energy stock that you’re familiar with. There can be negative trends developing which you don’t realize.

Today’s Bear of the Day is a very popular stock that has seen earnings estimates trend in a negative direction. Its integrated oil giant Exxon Mobile (XOM). Exxon Mobil Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas in the United States and internationally. It operates through Upstream, Energy Products, Chemical Products, and Specialty Products segments.

Exxon is currently a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) in the Oil and Gas – Integrated – International industry which ranks in the Bottom 23% of our Zacks Industry Rank. The reason for the unfavorable rank is that eight analysts have dropped their earnings estimates for the current year and next year. The bearish moves have cut the current year Zacks Consensus Estimate from $9.37 to $8.37 while next year’s number is off from $10.18 to $9.23.

The good news for the bulls out there is that Exxon is expecting earnings growth of 10.2% next year. Revenue growth has been steady as well, with 4.5% growth this year and 3.95% next year.

Investors looking for other stocks within the same industry do have a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) stock to investigate further. That’s Eni (E). There are several Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stocks in the industry, including BP (BP).

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