APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twenty-five research firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, sixteen have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $26.7273.

A number of research analysts recently commented on the stock. Evercore ISI dropped their target price on shares of APA from $21.00 to $16.00 in a research report on Tuesday, November 4th. Scotiabank lifted their target price on APA from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 9th. Royal Bank Of Canada boosted their target price on APA from $24.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, November 17th. Wolfe Research raised their price target on APA from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, October 20th. Finally, Stephens lifted their price target on APA from $22.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 6th.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Harris Associates L P raised its holdings in shares of APA by 1.9% in the first quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 25,708,527 shares of the company’s stock valued at $540,393,000 after buying an additional 488,530 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in APA by 2.0% during the 2nd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,208,961 shares of the company’s stock valued at $259,882,000 after acquiring an additional 275,981 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in APA by 13.6% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 14,030,230 shares of the company’s stock valued at $340,657,000 after acquiring an additional 1,674,739 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in APA by 29.6% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 4,462,476 shares of the company’s stock worth $108,349,000 after acquiring an additional 1,018,326 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of APA by 157.1% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 3,060,135 shares of the company’s stock valued at $55,970,000 after purchasing an additional 1,869,891 shares during the last quarter. 83.01% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

APA Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ APA opened at $24.18 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $24.31 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.33. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.58 billion, a PE ratio of 5.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.52 and a beta of 0.75. APA has a fifty-two week low of $13.58 and a fifty-two week high of $27.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.78 and a current ratio of 0.78.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 5th. The company reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.74 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $2.12 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. APA had a net margin of 15.49% and a return on equity of 19.86%. The firm’s revenue was down 16.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.00 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that APA will post 4.03 EPS for the current fiscal year.

APA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, February 23rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 22nd will be issued a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, January 22nd. APA’s payout ratio is presently 24.04%.

APA Company Profile

APA Corporation (NASDAQ: APA) is an independent exploration and production company engaged in the acquisition, development and production of oil and natural gas resources. The company operates through three core regions: the United States, Egypt and the North Sea. Through its integrated approach, APA combines geological and geophysical expertise with technical innovation to identify and develop hydrocarbons in both onshore and offshore settings.

In the United States, APA’s largest position is in the Permian Basin of West Texas and southeastern New Mexico, where it holds substantial acreage dedicated to oil-focused drilling and production.