Chicago, IL – April 29, 2025 – Zacks Equity Research shares National Fuel Gas Company NFG as the Bull of the Day and Century Communities CCS as the Bear of the Day. In addition, Zacks Equity Research provides analysis on Meta Platforms META, Alphabet GOOGL and Amazon AMZN.
Here is a synopsis of all five stocks.
National Fuel Gas Company is a diversified energy company with natural gas assets in the prolific Appalachian Basin, which are utilized for the production and transportation of natural gas. The company provides interstate transportation services through an integrated gas pipeline system in Pennsylvania and New York, as well as storage services via its underground natural gas storage fields.
The stock is displaying relative strength and has been making a series of 52-week highs this year. Shares have held up extremely well through the recent market volatility. Increasing volume has attracted investor attention as buying pressure accumulates in this top-ranked stock.
A Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), National Fuel Gas is part of the Zacks Oil and Gas Integrated US industry group, which currently ranks in the top 32% out of more than 250 industries. Because this group is ranked in the top half of all Zacks Ranked Industries, we expect it to outperform the market over the next 3 to 6 months.
Historical research studies suggest that approximately half of a stock’s price appreciation is due to its industry grouping. In fact, the top 50% of Zacks Ranked Industries outperforms the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.
It’s no secret that investing in stocks that are part of leading industry groups can give us a leg up relative to the market. By focusing on leading stocks within the top industries, we can dramatically improve our stock-picking success.
National Fuel Gas transports and stores natural gas for utilities, industrial companies and power producers. In addition, the energy player builds, owns, and operates gathering facilities in the Appalachian region. The company also sells natural gas to retail customers.
Systematic investments should strengthen the company’s operations and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Its steady process of replacing and modernizing existing pipelines should further boost earnings. Furthermore, National Fuel Gas is in an ideal position to take advantage of data center and artificial intelligence prospects to serve growing demand for gas-fired power production.
In terms of shareholder-friendly initiatives, National Fuel Gas has returned more than $590 million to investors over the past three years. NFG approved a $200 million share repurchase program in March 2024, with a target to complete the program in fiscal 2025. The company has also raised its dividend rate consistently over many decades.
National Fuel Gas (NFG) surpassed earnings estimates in three of the past four quarters. The company most recently delivered fiscal first-quarter earnings back in January of $1.66 per share, which represented a 5.7% surprise over the Zacks Consensus Estimate.
NFG has delivered a trailing four-quarter average surprise of 8.3%. Consistently beating earnings estimates is a recipe for success.
Analysts covering NFG have upped their fiscal second-quarter EPS estimates by 2.84% in the past 60 days. The Q2 Zacks Consensus Estimate now stands at $2.17 per share, translating to growth of 21.2% relative to the year-ago period. With the release set for Wednesday after the bell, investors should keep in mind that stocks can be volatile surrounding earnings announcements.
This market leader has seen its stock advance nearly 30% already this year, all while the general market witnessed a drastic correction. Only stocks that are in extremely powerful uptrends are able to experience this type of outperformance. This is the kind of stock we want to include in our portfolio – one that is trending well and receiving positive earnings estimate revisions.
The stock has been making a series of higher highs throughout the past year. With both strong fundamental and technical indicators, NFG stock is poised to continue its outperformance.
Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. As we know, NFG has recently witnessed positive revisions. As long as this trend remains intact (and NFG continues to deliver earnings beats), the stock will likely continue its bullish run.
Backed by a leading industry group and history of earnings beats, it’s not difficult to see why NFG stock is a compelling investment. Robust fundamentals combined with an appealing technical trend certainly justify adding shares to the mix.
NFG is ranked favorably by our Zacks Style Scores, with second-best ‘B’ ratings in each of our Growth and Momentum categories. This indicates that shares are likely to move higher based on a promising combination of momentum in earnings and sales trends along with price performance.
Recent positive earnings estimate revisions should also serve to create a ‘floor’ in terms of any sudden or unexpected downside moves. If you haven’t already done so, be sure to put NFG on your shortlist.
Century Communities is engaged in the design, development, construction, and sale of single-family attached and detached homes. The company is also involved in the entitlement and development of land, along with the provision of mortgage, title, and insurance services to its homebuyers.
Founded in 2002 and headquartered in Greenwood Village, Colorado, Century Communities sells homes through its sales representatives, retail studios, online websites, as well as through independent real estate brokers in 18 states. The company offers homes under the Century Communities and Century Complete brand names.
The homebuilding and construction company faces several headwinds. Earnings trends remain negative as the company struggles to adjust in this elevated rate environment. Price pressures on building materials are also making things more difficult for Century Communities.
A Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) stock, Century Communities is a component of the Zacks Building Products – Home Builders industry group, which currently ranks in the bottom 16% out of approximately 250 Zacks Ranked Industries. As such, we expect this industry group as a whole to underperform the market over the next 3 to 6 months, just as it has year-to-date.
Stocks in the bottom tiers of industries can often be intriguing short candidates. While individual stocks have the ability to outperform even when they’re part of a lagging industry, the inclusion in a weaker group serves as a headwind for any potential rallies and the journey forward is that much more difficult.
Along with many other homebuilder stocks, CCS shares have been underperforming over the past year. The stock is hitting a series of lower lows and represents a compelling short opportunity as we head further into 2025.
Century Communities fell short of earnings estimates in its latest quarterly release. Just last week, the company reported first-quarter earnings of $1.36 per share, missing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a whopping -21.8%. Revenues of $903.2 million also fell short of projections; the company has topped sales estimates just once over the last four quarters.
The homebuilder broke a streak of earnings beats, signaling more troubles may lie ahead. Falling short of earnings estimates is a recipe for underperformance, and CCS is no exception.
The company has been on the receiving end of negative earnings estimate revisions as of late. Looking at the current quarter, analysts have slashed estimates by -13.92% in the past 60 days. The Q2 Zacks Consensus EPS Estimate is now $2.04 per share, reflecting negative growth of -23.02% relative to the year-ago period.
Falling earnings estimates are a huge red flag and need to be respected. Negative growth year-over-year is the type of trend that bears like to see.
CCS stock has experienced what is known as a “death cross,” whereby the stock’s 50-day moving average crosses below its 200-day moving average. Shares would have to make an outsized move to the upside and show increasing earnings estimate revisions to warrant taking any long positions. The stock has fallen nearly 26% this year alone.
A deteriorating fundamental and technical backdrop show that this stock is not set to make its way to new highs anytime soon. The fact that CCS is included in one of the worst-performing industry groups provides yet another headwind to a long list of concerns. A recent earnings miss and falling future earnings estimates will likely serve as a ceiling to any potential rallies, nurturing the stock’s downtrend.
Century Communities is likely to suffer from uncertainties surrounding the U.S. housing market, which are expected to continue given consumer affordability concerns and lingering inflationary pressures.
Potential investors may want to give this stock the cold shoulder, or perhaps include it as part of a short or hedge strategy. Bulls will want to steer clear of CCS until the situation shows major signs of improvement.
Meta Platforms is set to report its first-quarter 2025 results on April 30.
META expects total revenues between $39.5 billion and $41.8 billion for the first quarter of 2025, indicating 8-15% year-over-year growth or 11-18% growth at constant currency (cc).
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter revenues is pegged at $41.22 billion, indicating an increase of 13.08% from the year-ago quarter’s reported figure.
The consensus mark for earnings stands at $5.21 per share, down 2.3% over the past 30 days, suggesting growth of 10.62% from the figure reported in the year-ago quarter.
Meta Platforms, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Meta Platforms, Inc. Quote
Meta Platforms’ earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average surprise being 13.77%. (Find the latest EPS estimates and surprises on Zacks Earnings Calendar.)
Let’s see how things have shaped up for the upcoming announcement.
META is riding on strong advertising revenue growth prospects. Meta Platforms’ advertising revenues are expected to benefit from strong spending by advertisers as they leverage its growing AI prowess despite tariff-related uncertainties. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for first-quarter 2025 advertising revenues is currently pegged at $40.44 billion, suggesting 13.5% year-over-year growth.
Meta Platforms’ offerings — WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook — currently reach more than three billion people daily. Their staggering reach and increasing ad impressions (up 6% year over year in the fourth quarter of 2024) make META one of the most important players in the digital ad sales market, apart from Alphabet and Amazon. Meta Platforms, Alphabet and Amazon are expected to absorb roughly 50% of the projected global ad spending by 2028.
META has been leveraging AI and machine learning to boost the potency of its social-media offerings, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. Effective usage of AI has been helping the company keep its users engaged. AI-driven feed recommendations have been a key catalyst.
However, rising expenses related to investments in developing more advanced models and AI services are expected to keep margins under pressure. The Reality Labs business continues to burn cash, which doesn’t bode well for META’s first-quarter results. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for Family of Apps’ operating income is pegged at $19.97 billion indicating 13% year-over-year growth. The consensus mark for Reality Labs’ loss is pegged at $4.70 billion, wider than the year-ago quarter’s loss of $3.85 billion.
META shares have declined 6.6% year to date, outperforming the Zacks Computer & Technology sector’s fall of 11% but lagging the Zacks Internet Software Industry’s 5.9% drop.
Meta Platforms shares have also outperformed most of its “Magnificent 7” peers, including Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIAand Tesla over the same timeframe.
Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, NVIDIA and Tesla shares have declined 7.1%, 13.9%, 14.5%, 16.5%, 17.4% and 29.5%, respectively, on a year-to-date basis.
Meta Platforms’ stock is not so cheap, as the Value Score of C suggests a stretched valuation at this moment.
In terms of the forward 12-month Price/Sales, META is trading at 7.23X, higher than the broader sector’s 5.59X.
AI is heavily dependent on data, of which META has a trove, driven by its more than 3.35 billion daily users. Meta Platforms has been leveraging AI to improve the potency of its platform offerings, including WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger and Facebook.
META’s growing footprint among young adults, driven by improving recommendations, boosts its competitive prowess. AI usage is making it a popular name among advertisers. Meta Platforms focuses on improving advertisers’ return on ad spending. Andromeda, its proprietary machine learning system, improves the performance of the company’s advertising system by delivering more personalized advertisements to viewers.
The deployment of META’s deep neural network on the NVIDIA Grace Hopper Superchip across Instagram and Facebook applications has achieved more than 6% recall improvement to the retrieval system while delivering more than 8% ad quality improvement on selected segments.
Advantage+ is helping advertisers streamline campaign management and boost performance through more ads in the system for different audiences. AI is helping META retain advertisers who are leveraging its generative AI-powered image expansion, background generation and text generation tools to boost business.
Meta AI usage continues to increase, with more than 700 million monthly actives. The company’s initiative to add updates that will help Meta AI deliver more personalized and relevant responses is expected to boost engagement.
META’s use of AI bodes well for its near-term and long-term prospects. However, a stretched valuation and growing regulatory issues are a concern.
Meta Platforms currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), suggesting that investors should wait for a favorable point to accumulate the stock.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
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