Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) Receives $21.60 Average Target Price from Analysts

Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) has received an average rating of “Moderate Buy” from the five research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $21.60.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. B. Riley reduced their target price on shares of Peabody Energy from $27.00 to $19.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, April 11th. UBS Group initiated coverage on shares of Peabody Energy in a research report on Tuesday, July 15th. They set a “neutral” rating and a $14.00 target price on the stock. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of Peabody Energy from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Benchmark cut their price objective on shares of Peabody Energy from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 7th.

Institutional Trading of Peabody Energy

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of BTU. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 1.2% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,346,729 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $153,841,000 after acquiring an additional 88,466 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 1.9% during the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 3,858,777 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $52,286,000 after acquiring an additional 73,440 shares in the last quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 3,620,014 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $75,803,000 after acquiring an additional 40,000 shares in the last quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 96.7% during the 1st quarter. Long Focus Capital Management LLC now owns 1,789,858 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $24,253,000 after acquiring an additional 879,800 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 2.1% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,620,897 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $33,942,000 after acquiring an additional 33,742 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Peabody Energy Trading Up 4.0%

Shares of BTU stock opened at $16.72 on Friday. Peabody Energy has a 52-week low of $9.61 and a 52-week high of $29.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.64 and a current ratio of 2.21. The firm has a market capitalization of $2.03 billion, a PE ratio of 16.23 and a beta of 0.53. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $14.47 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $14.40.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The coal producer reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.04) by ($0.02). Peabody Energy had a return on equity of 4.41% and a net margin of 3.43%. The business had revenue of $890.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $944.27 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.42 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 14.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that Peabody Energy will post 2.61 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peabody Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 3rd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, August 14th will be paid a dividend of $0.075 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, August 14th. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. Peabody Energy’s payout ratio is currently 29.13%.

About Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in coal mining business in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, India, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, France, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Germany, and internationally. The company operates through Seaborne Thermal, Seaborne Metallurgical, Powder River Basin, Other U.S.