NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Shares of ConocoPhillips are lower by 1.17% to $65.02 in late afternoon trading on Wednesday, after the independent exploration and production company announced its plan to spend 50% more over the next three years mostly in the U.S. and Canada. In a presentation released today the company outlined its financial priorities, which included a three year investment plan with annual capital expenditures of approximately $11.5 billion. ConocoPhillips said it is also working toward reducing costs by $1 billion by the end of next year. Another factor driving ConocoPhillips stock into the red today is the decline in oil prices, spurred by a greater than expected rise in U.S. crude stockpiles.The Energy Information Administration said that for the week ended April 3 U.S. crude stockpiles grew by 10.95 million barrels to a record 482.39 million. Crude oil (WTI) is lower by 5.58% to $50.97 per barrel and Brent crude is falling by 5.16% to $56.05 per barrel this afternoon, according to the CNBC.com index. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates CONOCOPHILLIPS as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate CONOCOPHILLIPS (COP) 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 largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures, reasonable valuation levels and expanding profit margins. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including feeble growth in the company's earnings per share, deteriorating net income and disappointing return on equity." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The current debt-to-equity ratio, 0.43, is low and is below the industry average, implying that there has been successful management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.03, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems. 35.76% is the gross profit margin for CONOCOPHILLIPS which we consider to be strong. Regardless of COP's high profit margin, it has managed to decrease from the same period last year. Despite the mixed results of the gross profit margin, the net profit margin of -0.34% trails the industry average. The company's current return on equity has slightly decreased from the same quarter one year prior. This implies a minor weakness in the organization. In comparison to the other companies in the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry and the overall market, CONOCOPHILLIPS's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500. Net operating cash flow has decreased to $2,597.00 million or 33.59% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, when comparing the cash generation rate to the industry average, the firm's growth is significantly lower. You can view the full analysis from the report here: COP Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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