APA (NASDAQ:APA) Given New $47.00 Price Target at Wolfe Research

APA (NASDAQ:APA) had its price target upped by Wolfe Research from $45.00 to $47.00 in a research note issued to investors on Monday,MarketScreener reports. Wolfe Research currently has an outperform rating on the stock.

APA has been the subject of several other reports. Jefferies Financial Group raised their target price on shares of APA from $22.00 to $26.00 in a research note on Monday, March 9th. Sanford C. Bernstein dropped their price objective on shares of APA from $26.00 to $25.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $33.00 to $40.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 5th. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $23.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Finally, Stephens lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $24.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 31st. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have given a Hold rating and four have issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, APA has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.46.

APA Stock Performance

APA opened at $43.02 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $15.20 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78 and a beta of 0.49. The company has a fifty day moving average of $32.70 and a 200 day moving average of $27.33. APA has a fifty-two week low of $13.58 and a fifty-two week high of $45.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.62 by $0.29. The company had revenue of $1.99 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. APA had a net margin of 15.55% and a return on equity of 19.89%. APA’s quarterly revenue was down 26.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.79 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that APA will post 4.03 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

APA Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 22nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, April 22nd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, April 22nd. APA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.06%.

Insider Activity at APA

In other news, Director Matthew Regis Bob sold 23,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total value of $833,290.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 6,634 shares in the company, valued at approximately $240,349.82. This trade represents a 77.61% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.69% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On APA

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of APA by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 15,321,936 shares of the company’s stock worth $374,786,000 after acquiring an additional 1,291,706 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of APA by 2.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 14,710,034 shares of the company’s stock worth $359,807,000 after acquiring an additional 285,542 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of APA by 21.8% in the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 10,425,586 shares of the company’s stock worth $255,010,000 after acquiring an additional 1,864,900 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of APA by 76.9% in the 4th quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,171,963 shares of the company’s stock worth $175,426,000 after acquiring an additional 3,117,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of APA by 29.6% in 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 last quarter. Institutional investors own 83.01% of the company’s stock.

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.