NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Marathon Oil Corp. are higher by 4.48% to $26.61 in late afternoon trading on Friday, as stocks within the oil and energy sector get a boost from the commodity's rise in price. Crude oil (WTI) is up by 4.71% to $48.43 per barrel and Brent crude is up by 3.75% to $50.08 per barrel this afternoon, according to the Bloomberg index. Oil prices are soaring as the International Energy Agency, the west's energy watchdog, is anticipating an end to the selloff, Reuters reports. 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 IEA has said the market could continue to fall before it recovers, but added that it is seeing signs that lower prices were starting to reduce production in some areas, including North America. "How long the market's floor will be is anybody's guess. But the selloff is having an impact. A price recovery-barring any major disruption-may not be imminent, but signs are mounting that the tide will turn," the IEA said in its monthly report, Reuters added. Additionally, Marathon Oil's competitor in the oil and gas exploration industry Schlumberger announced on Thursday that it would cut 9,000 jobs due to the global decline in crude oil prices, which is slowing down production in 2015 and perhaps beyond, USA Today reports. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates MARATHON OIL CORP as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate MARATHON OIL CORP (MRO) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income, a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself and feeble growth in the company's earnings per share." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $1,774.00 million or 7.84% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, MARATHON OIL CORP has also modestly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of -1.95%. The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.32, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Despite the fact that MRO's debt-to-equity ratio is low, the quick ratio, which is currently 0.67, displays a potential problem in covering short-term cash needs. Reflecting the weaknesses we have cited, including the decline in the company's earnings per share, MRO has underperformed the S&P 500 Index, declining 19.37% from its price level of one year ago. Turning toward the future, the fact that the stock has come down in price over the past year should not necessarily be interpreted as a negative; it could be one of the factors that may help make the stock attractive down the road. Right now, however, we believe that it is too soon to buy. The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has decreased by 24.3% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, dropping from $569.00 million to $431.00 million. You can view the full analysis from the report here: MRO 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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