NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Brazilian state run oil company Petroleo Brasileiro Petrobras SA is going to cut its projected investments over the upcoming five years by about 20% as falling crude prices and a corruption investigation have forced the company to scale back, sources told Reuters. Shares of Petrobras closed lower by 0.58% to $8.63 in after-hours trading on Thursday afternoon. The 2015-2019 business plan will be announced sometime in May and will significantly reduce capital spending from the $221 billion figure outlined in the company's previous 2014-2018 plan announced in February of last year. "There may be a reduction of around 20%. It's still a robust investment plan, but it's realistic about cash flow and what the company can do given that its suppliers are under investigation," the source told Reuters. The comptroller general is investigating over two dozen major engineer firms on suspicion of overpricing contracts in a multi-billion dollar scheme that accuses politicians and Petrobras officials of bribery, Reuters added. Separately TheStreet Ratings team rates PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR as a Hold with a ratings score of C-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR (PBR) 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 revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and attractive valuation levels. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including disappointing return on equity, weak operating cash flow and poor profit margins." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: The revenue growth came in higher than the industry average of 19.6%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues slightly increased by 3.8%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share. The debt-to-equity ratio is somewhat low, currently at 0.84, and is less than that of the industry average, implying that there has been a relatively successful effort in the management of debt levels. Along with the favorable debt-to-equity ratio, the company maintains an adequate quick ratio of 1.30, which illustrates the ability to avoid short-term cash problems. PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR's earnings per share declined by 21.7% in the most recent quarter compared to the same quarter a year ago. Stable earnings per share over the past year indicate the company has sound management over its earnings and share float. However, the consensus estimates suggest that there will be an upward trend in the coming year. During the past fiscal year, PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR's EPS of $1.70 remained unchanged from the prior years' EPS of $1.70. This year, the market expects an improvement in earnings ($2.50 versus $1.70). Net operating cash flow has decreased to $6,413.00 million or 18.05% when compared to the same quarter last year. In conjunction, when comparing current results to the industry average, PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR has marginally lower results. 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, PETROLEO BRASILEIRO SA- PETR's return on equity is significantly below that of the industry average and is below that of the S&P 500. You can view the full analysis from the report here: PBR Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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