Shares of APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA – Get Free Report) dropped 3.8% during mid-day trading on Tuesday after The Goldman Sachs Group lowered their price target on the stock from $35.00 to $31.00. The Goldman Sachs Group currently has a sell rating on the stock. APA traded as low as $33.24 and last traded at $33.26. Approximately 5,583,742 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 14% from the average daily volume of 6,501,410 shares. The stock had previously closed at $34.59.
Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on APA. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of APA from $48.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, December 14th. Raymond James cut their price objective on shares of APA from $44.00 to $43.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Piper Sandler cut their price target on shares of APA from $36.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Susquehanna cut their price target on shares of APA from $53.00 to $50.00 and set a “positive” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 26th. Finally, Mizuho cut their price target on shares of APA from $36.00 to $34.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 15th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, APA presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $43.61.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in APA by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 42,643,529 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,530,050,000 after buying an additional 924,400 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in shares of APA by 4.1% during the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,525,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $992,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,073,681 shares in the last quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of APA by 10.6% during the 4th quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 20,299,538 shares of the company’s stock worth $728,347,000 after purchasing an additional 1,938,335 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P grew its position in shares of APA by 17.8% during the 4th quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 15,705,693 shares of the company’s stock worth $563,520,000 after purchasing an additional 2,367,570 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smead Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of APA by 13.6% during the 4th quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,235,957 shares of the company’s stock worth $187,866,000 after purchasing an additional 626,460 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 83.01% of the company’s stock.
APA Stock Performance
The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.17 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.61. The stock has a market cap of $9.92 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 3.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.41.
APA (NASDAQ:APA – Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The company reported $1.15 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.33 by ($0.18). APA had a return on equity of 62.64% and a net margin of 34.95%. The firm had revenue of $2.17 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.07 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.48 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 12.3% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that APA Co. will post 4.24 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.
APA Announces Dividend
The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, May 22nd. Investors of record on Monday, April 22nd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.04%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 19th. APA’s payout ratio is 10.78%.
APA Company Profile
APA Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. It has oil and gas operations in the United States, Egypt, and North Sea. The company also has exploration and appraisal activities in Suriname, as well as holds interests in projects located in Uruguay and internationally.