Oil and gas stocks: FundamentalRadar sector page guide

The Oil and Gas sector page on FundamentalRadar aggregates Brazilian oil and gas companies from B3 into a single analytical view. This guide explains what each metric means, how medians are calculated, and what limitations to consider when interpreting the data.

TL;DR

• Median P/E and P/B represent valuation for the sector; ROE and dividend yield show profitability and income distribution
• Medians are computed per official B3 label (Petróleo, Gás), using one share class per company with zero ratios excluded
• The page displays leaders ranked by ROE and all classified tickers; data refreshes on each request with a 6-hour cache

What the sector page displays

The page aggregates companies under two official B3 classifications: Petróleo (oil exploration and production) and Gás (natural gas distribution and services). When a preset groups multiple labels, the page publishes medians per label rather than a consolidated median to avoid misrepresenting heterogeneous subsectors.

The key metrics displayed are:

The footer explicitly states: "FundamentalRadar · informative sector analysis, not investment advice."

How medians are calculated

Median definition

A median is the middle value in an ordered distribution. If ten companies have P/E ratios of 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 and 200×, the median is 8.5×, not 26.4× which would be the average. The median resists outliers: a company posting a 200× P/E from a temporary data glitch does not distort the central tendency. Price–earnings ratio

Excluding zeros

The FundamentalRadar applies a specific rule: P/E and P/B values of exactly 0.00 are treated as missing, not as legitimate ratios. A zero P/E indicates a zero denominator—either zero earnings (profitability) or zero book value. Publishing a ratio of zero would be mathematically undefined, so these values are excluded from median calculations.

This differs from dividend yield. A dividend yield of 0.00% is a factual measurement: the company did not distribute dividends. However, the sector median is labeled "payers only," meaning only companies with positive yields are included. Including zeros would artificially lower the median, misstating what yield investors can expect from the sector's dividend-paying companies. Dividend yield

Share class selection

When a company issues multiple share classes (e.g., Petrobras PETR3 and PETR4), the platform uses only the most liquid class. This prevents double-counting and ensures the median reflects one company, one data point.

ROE leaders

The page ranks companies by Return on Equity (ROE), defined as net income divided by shareholders' equity Return on equity. The top performers appear first, showing their ticker, ROE percentage, and a link to their individual page. ROE leaders are identified from the same endpoint that provides sector medians; price and market cap are joined from the screener universe.

The three core metrics explained

Price-to-Earnings (P/E) Ratio

The P/E ratio expresses how many years of current earnings a stock requires to repay its purchase price. A P/E of 8 means the market would recover the investment in roughly eight years at current earnings levels. Price–earnings ratio

Brazilian oil companies often trade at single-digit P/E multiples compared to global peers, partly due to commodity exposure and capital intensity.

Price-to-Book (P/B) Ratio

The P/B ratio compares market price to book value per share. P/B ratio A P/B below 1.0 suggests the market values the company below its accounting value—potentially indicating distress or undervaluation.

For oil companies, book value can be misleading: reserves are carried at historical cost, not market value. A P/B of 1.0 does not guarantee the company's oil reserves are worth more than book value.

Return on Equity (ROE)

ROE measures management's efficiency turning equity into profit. Return on equity The DuPont decomposition reveals drivers:

$\text{ROE} = \frac{\text{Net Profit}}{\text{Revenue}} \times \frac{\text{Revenue}}{\text{Total Assets}} \times \frac{\text{Total Assets}}{\text{Equity}}$

High ROE can stem from:

• High profit margins (operational efficiency)
• High asset turnover (revenue per dollar of assets)
• High financial leverage (debt financing)

Oil companies often exhibit moderate ROE; exploration-heavy firms may have lower margins but high asset turnover from efficient extraction.

Dividend Yield

Dividend yield is annual dividends per share divided by current price. Dividend yield The sector median considers only paying companies—those with actual distributions in the trailing 12 months.

Oil majors like Petrobras often sustain 5–8% yields, reflecting mature cash flows and regulatory distribution requirements. Mid-cap and small-cap explorers may show zero yield if retaining cash for growth or debt reduction.

Market capitalization and sector comparison

Market cap appears as supplementary data in the leaders table, not as a sorting criterion. A large company like Petrobras (market cap ~R$ 500 billion in early 2026) dominates numerically but does not influence the median calculations, which are per-share metrics.

Comparing across sectors requires context: a 10× P/E looks cheap for healthcare but expensive for utilities. The oil and gas sector typically trades at lower multiples (8–12×) due to commodity cycles, capital intensity, and regulatory constraints.

Data quality, coverage, and limitations

Real-time vs. stale data

Prices and price-derived metrics (P/E, P/B, market cap) update with each B3 trading session. Fundamental ratios from financial statements lag behind: companies publish quarters with delays of weeks to months. The sector median for Q3 2026 may use data ranging from Q4 2025 to Q1 2026 depending on each company's filing schedule.

Public data sources

The dashboard relies on:

• Financial statements filed by companies with CVM (Brazilian securities regulator)
• Closing prices from B3
• Sector assignments from B3's official classification

No proprietary data or proprietary calculations drive the intermediation.

Substantive coverage

The "classified" count (e.g., "15 of 45 stocks") reflects "substantive coverage"—assets in named sectors, excluding catch-all buckets like Outros or Multicategoria. A page reporting 100% coverage might include generic labels that name no industry. FundamentalRadar filters these to show only meaningfully classified assets.

The B3 classification system uses these catch-all buckets — it assigns securities without specifying an industry, so a universe where a large share of papers sits in Outros would report 100% coverage if counted literally.

Refresh cadence

Two requests five minutes apart may return identical median values if no new data arrived.

Cyclicality considerations

The oil and gas sector is inherently cyclical. P/E ratios contract during price troughs (depressed earnings inflating ratios) and expand during peaks. Analysts often normalize earnings over 5-year averages to smooth cycles. Median figures capture a single point in time; interpret within the current commodity price environment.

Common errors and fixes

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Why are there separate medians for "Petróleo" and "Gás" instead of one oil and gas median?

The two B3 labels cover distinct business models. Exploration and production (E&P) companies focus on upstream extraction, while gas distributors operate midstream assets with different earnings patterns. A median combining both would obscure meaningful differences, so the page publishes each label's median separately.

Do companies with negative earnings appear in the P/E median?

Negative earnings produce negative P/E ratios, which lack economic meaning as valuation multiples. Companies with losses are excluded from P/E median calculations. They may appear in the leaders table with an empty P/E field ("—").

Why does the dividend yield median say "payers only"?

Including companies with zero dividends would artificially depress the median. The "payers only" label makes explicit that the figure represents the yield of companies actually distributing income. Investors seeking dividends should focus on this filter, not the full universe average.

Does market cap affect the median calculations?

No. Medians are computed over per-share multiples—P/E, P/B, ROE, and dividend yield. A company with R$ 10 billion market cap has equal weight to one with R$ 100 billion. Market cap is informational, appearing in the leaders table for context.

How often is the data updated?

Prices update daily during B3 trading. Fundamental ratios update when companies file reports—quarterly for profits, annually for balance sheets. The sector median reprocesses on each page request from the latest available screener snapshot.

Is this page suitable for comparing with US oil companies?

The page uses B3 data and Brazilian accounting standards. US producers trade on different exchanges (NYSE, NASDAQ) with different fiscal calendars and reserve accounting rules. International comparisons require currency conversion and reserve standardization adjustments.

Should I use this page to decide which oil stock to buy?

The page is educational, not advisory. Medians serve as benchmarks for individual company analysis. Before investing, examine each company's reserve life, production guidance, payout ratio, and debt maturity profile.

Sources

Related Resources

• Sector analysis: median P/E, ROE, and dividend yield by sector
• What is P/E ratio
• What is ROE and how to calculate return on equity
• Page indicators: how to read a ticker on FundamentalRadar