Baytex Energy (TSE:BTE) Reaches New 12-Month High – Still a Buy?

Baytex Energy Corp. (TSE:BTE) (NYSE:BTE)’s share price reached a new 52-week high on Wednesday . The stock traded as high as C$6.35 and last traded at C$6.22, with a volume of 13124689 shares. The stock had previously closed at C$6.08.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities research analysts have commented on BTE shares. TD Securities upped their target price on shares of Baytex Energy from C$5.00 to C$5.50 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Royal Bank Of Canada cut shares of Baytex Energy from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 13th. Scotiabank upped their price objective on shares of Baytex Energy from C$5.25 to C$5.50 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Tuesday, January 20th. National Bank Financial raised their price objective on Baytex Energy from C$5.00 to C$5.75 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Finally, Canaccord Genuity Group lowered Baytex Energy from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from C$5.00 to C$4.75 in a report on Tuesday, January 27th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and four have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of C$5.54.

Baytex Energy Stock Performance

The stock’s 50-day moving average price is C$5.23 and its 200 day moving average price is C$4.40. The firm has a market cap of C$4.37 billion, a P/E ratio of -7.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.12 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 4.94, a current ratio of 3.61 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Baytex Energy (TSE:BTE) (NYSE:BTE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The company reported C($1.11) earnings per share for the quarter. Baytex Energy had a negative net margin of 40.77% and a negative return on equity of 16.25%. As a group, equities analysts predict that Baytex Energy Corp. will post 0.3703367 EPS for the current year.

Baytex Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 1st were issued a $0.0225 dividend. This represents a $0.09 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 13th. Baytex Energy’s dividend payout ratio is currently -11.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Baytex Energy

In other news, insider Chad Lundberg acquired 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 30th. The shares were purchased at an average price of C$6.15 per share, for a total transaction of C$67,650.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 613,401 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately C$3,772,416.15. This represents a 1.83% increase in their ownership of the stock. Company insiders own 0.83% of the company’s stock.

About Baytex Energy

Baytex Energy Corp is an oil and gas company. Geographically, the group operates in Canada and the United States. The company derives a majority of revenue from Canada. Its Canada segment includes the exploration, development, and production of crude oil and natural gas in Western Canada.