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Investors Business Daily
Investors Business Daily
Business
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY and JAMES DETAR

Fluor Stock Rating Pops; Nearing Buy Point As Profits Gush

Highly ranked Fluor just got a huge rating upgrade. The Relative Strength (RS) Rating for Fluor stock soared from 67 last week to 90 Monday after it reported outstanding financial results on Friday. Earnings for the quarter shot up a whopping 407%.

Irving, Texas-based Fluor provides construction services and supplies to the oil and gas industry, along with mining, transportation and other industries.

Flour Stock Flourishes As Oil Demand Outpaces Supply

Gas prices are down from last year despite Saudi Arabia's recent decision to keep its production level down to support prices. Oil and gas producers are still active though, according to IBD's sister news company Barron's which cited "signs that oil demand is finally outpacing supply."

The 90 IBD RS Rating means Fluor stock ranks among the top 10% of all stocks for price performance over the past year. It's notable because market research shows that the best stocks tend to have an RS Rating of at least 80 in the early stages of their moves.

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Among its other key ratings, Fluor stock boasts a near-best 97 Composite Rating, of 99. The Composite Rating is a mix of IBD's top five key technical and fundamental metrics. The oil and gas services supplier also has a decent 83 Earnings Per Share Rating and a B- Accumulation/Distribution Rating on an A+ to E scale. The B- rating shows that big funds such as mutual funds and insurance company funds are buying significantly more shares than selling.

Fluor stock is working on a cup without handle with a 38.20 entry. See if the stock can break out in heavy trading. The pattern began back in March. Fluor shot up 15.6% Friday to 37.20 on quarterly earnings results, just below the buy point. It gave back some of that gain Monday, falling 4.7%.

Fluor Stock Among Tops In Group

Flour has reported sales and profit growth over the last three quarters. Revenue grew 19% last quarter to $3.94 billion. The prior two periods its revenue grew 2%, then 20%. Earnings growth has been stronger. Last quarter earnings-per-share grew 407%, up from 155% in the previous report and 39% the quarter before that.

Fluor stock earns the No. 2 rank among its peers in the Building-Heavy Construction industry group. Rival Texas-based supplier Primoris Services is the top-ranked stock n the group. The group as a whole has a strong A- Relative Strength Rating.

When looking for the best stocks to buy and watch, one factor to watch closely is relative price strength. IBD's proprietary Relative Strength Rating identifies technical performance by showing how a stock's price action over the last 52 weeks compares to that of the other stocks in our database.

Please follow James DeTar on Twitter @JimDeTar 

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