APA (NASDAQ:APA) Earns Neutral Rating from Piper Sandler

APA (NASDAQ:APA)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reissued by stock analysts at Piper Sandler in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, MarketBeat reports. They currently have a $21.00 price target on the stock, up from their prior price target of $19.00. Piper Sandler’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 11.58% from the company’s current price.

Other equities research analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “sell” rating and set a $23.00 price objective on shares of APA in a research note on Wednesday, March 19th. Scotiabank reaffirmed a “sector perform” rating and set a $22.00 target price (up previously from $14.00) on shares of APA in a research note on Friday, July 11th. Mizuho lowered their target price on shares of APA from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “underperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, May 13th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $19.00 price target (up previously from $18.00) on shares of APA in a report on Monday, July 14th. Finally, Argus upgraded shares of APA to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 16th. Three analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $23.44.

APA Stock Performance

Shares of APA stock opened at $18.82 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.81 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.77, a PEG ratio of 6.37 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.89, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.81. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $18.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $19.62. APA has a 52 week low of $13.58 and a 52 week high of $33.41.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The company reported $1.06 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.83 by $0.23. APA had a net margin of 9.75% and a return on equity of 23.22%. The company had revenue of $2.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.17 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.78 EPS. APA’s revenue for the quarter was up 35.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that APA will post 4.03 EPS for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On APA

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in APA by 2.9% in the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 36,439,749 shares of the company’s stock valued at $765,964,000 after purchasing an additional 1,029,961 shares in the last quarter. Harris Associates L P lifted its stake in 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. lifted its stake in APA by 8.1% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,932,980 shares of the company’s stock valued at $292,871,000 after buying an additional 1,046,893 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of APA by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 13,230,751 shares of the company’s stock worth $305,498,000 after purchasing an additional 850,052 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of APA by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 9,507,956 shares of the company’s stock worth $219,016,000 after purchasing an additional 200,770 shares during the last quarter. 83.01% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About APA

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.