NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- ConocoPhillips shares are down 1.4% to $61.75 in trading on Thursday as falling oil prices continue to hurt stocks across the oil sector in trading today. West Texas crude for February delivery is down 3.86% to $46.61 while Brent crude is also declining, down 2.07% to $47.68, in trading today. Exclusive Report: Jim Cramer's Best Stocks for 2015 STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more. The current decline is a reversal from yesterday's late surge in prices and this morning's continuation of that rebound as prices inched above $50 in trading. However, prices tumbled after the U.S. Labor Department released a report showing that claims for jobless benefits rose last week. The Labor Department reports states that claims rose to 316,000 last week, above the 300,000 claim threshold that signals an improving labor market, according the CNBC. "That uptick in jobless claims is something that will really get the entire market reacting," Global Hunter Securities analyst Richard Hastings told the news agency. TheStreet Ratings team rates CONOCOPHILLIPS as a Buy with a ratings score of B-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate CONOCOPHILLIPS (COP) a BUY. This is driven by some important positives, which we believe should have a greater impact than any weaknesses, and should give investors a better performance opportunity than most stocks we cover. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its reasonable valuation levels, expanding profit margins, good cash flow from operations, increase in net income and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. We feel these strengths outweigh the fact that the company has had somewhat disappointing return on equity." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: 40.09% is the gross profit margin for CONOCOPHILLIPS which we consider to be strong. It has increased from the same quarter the previous year. Along with this, the net profit margin of 22.38% significantly outperformed against the industry average. Net operating cash flow has increased to $4,180.00 million or 12.82% when compared to the same quarter last year. The firm also exceeded the industry average cash flow growth rate of -1.95%. The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.38, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.94 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems. The net income growth from the same quarter one year ago has exceeded that of the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry average, but is less than that of the S&P 500. The net income increased by 9.0% when compared to the same quarter one year prior, going from $2,480.00 million to $2,704.00 million. You can view the full analysis from the report here: COP Ratings Report STOCKS TO BUY: TheStreet Quant Ratings has identified a handful of stocks that can potentially TRIPLE in the next 12 months. Learn more.
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