Canaccord Genuity Group Upgrades Baytex Energy (NYSE:BTE) to Strong-Buy

Baytex Energy (NYSE:BTE) (TSE:BTE) was upgraded by Canaccord Genuity Group from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report issued on Tuesday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on the stock. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Baytex Energy from a “hold (c)” rating to a “sell (d)” rating in a report on Friday, March 6th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Baytex Energy from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Saturday, January 31st. Zacks Research upgraded Baytex Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, April 3rd. Raymond James Financial raised Baytex Energy from a “hold” rating to a “moderate buy” rating in a report on Monday, March 30th. Finally, TD Securities cut Baytex Energy from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, January 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have issued a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold”.

Baytex Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:BTE opened at $4.21 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.05, a quick ratio of 3.61 and a current ratio of 3.61. The firm has a market cap of $3.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -7.38 and a beta of 0.32. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $3.96 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $3.30. Baytex Energy has a fifty-two week low of $1.44 and a fifty-two week high of $4.56.

Baytex Energy (NYSE:BTE) (TSE:BTE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 4th. The oil and gas producer reported ($0.31) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.02 by ($0.33). Baytex Energy had a negative net margin of 16.96% and a negative return on equity of 5.44%. The company had revenue of $251.38 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $545.60 million. On average, analysts expect that Baytex Energy will post 0.31 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Baytex Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Baytex Energy by 1.3% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,449,680 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $95,270,000 after acquiring an additional 374,972 shares during the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. increased its stake in shares of Baytex Energy by 20.0% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 14,233,589 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $33,342,000 after purchasing an additional 2,375,496 shares in the last quarter. Encompass Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Baytex Energy in the 4th quarter worth $45,054,000. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in Baytex Energy by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 10,710,876 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $19,172,000 after purchasing an additional 738,337 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Baytex Energy by 176.3% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 10,287,145 shares of the oil and gas producer’s stock worth $33,321,000 after purchasing an additional 6,564,105 shares during the period. 46.15% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Baytex Energy

Baytex Energy Corp. is an oil & gas exploration and production company. The firm engages in the acquisition, development and production of crude oil and natural gas in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and in the Eagle Ford in the United States. The company was founded on June 3, 1993 and is headquartered in Calgary, Canada.