National Asset Management Inc. Buys New Stake in APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA)

Posted by MarketBeat News on Aug 1st, 2022

National Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA – Get Rating) in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund bought 5,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $209,000.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in shares of APA by 17.0% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 17,493,238 shares of the company’s stock valued at $470,392,000 after purchasing an additional 2,547,210 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in APA by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,358,464 shares of the company’s stock worth $197,596,000 after acquiring an additional 80,497 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in APA by 130.1% during the fourth quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,500,290 shares of the company’s stock worth $67,233,000 after acquiring an additional 1,413,779 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its position in APA by 565.2% during the fourth quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,473,762 shares of the company’s stock worth $66,519,000 after acquiring an additional 2,101,876 shares during the period. Finally, Mirabella Financial Services LLP acquired a new position in APA during the fourth quarter worth $2,007,000. 84.08% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the stock. MKM Partners restated a “buy” rating and set a $45.00 price objective on shares of APA in a research report on Wednesday, July 20th. Raymond James upped their price objective on shares of APA from $59.00 to $75.00 and gave the stock a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, April 25th. Truist Financial upped their price objective on shares of APA from $55.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 21st. Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of APA from $60.00 to $56.00 in a report on Tuesday, July 19th. Finally, KeyCorp upped their target price on shares of APA from $44.00 to $45.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, April 4th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eleven have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, APA has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $50.63.

Insider Buying and Selling at APA

In other APA news, insider P Anthony Lannie sold 86,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $41.26, for a total value of $3,579,305.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 58,844 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,427,903.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.88% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

APA Trading Up 4.4 %

Shares of APA opened at $37.17 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.23, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.77. APA Co. has a 12-month low of $15.55 and a 12-month high of $51.95. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $39.64 and a 200 day moving average price of $38.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $12.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 5.31, a P/E/G ratio of 0.18 and a beta of 4.06.

APA (NASDAQ:APA – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 4th. The company reported $1.92 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.08 by ($0.16). APA had a net margin of 30.21% and a return on equity of 11,632.79%. The company had revenue of $2.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.44 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.91 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 42.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that APA Co. will post 9.96 EPS for the current year.

APA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 22nd will be given a $0.125 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, July 21st. This represents a $0.50 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.35%. APA’s payout ratio is currently 7.14%.

About APA

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APA Corporation, through its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, and produces oil and gas properties. It has operations in the United States, Egypt, and the United Kingdom, as well as has exploration activities offshore Suriname. The company also operates gathering, processing, and transmission assets in West Texas, as well as holds ownership in four Permian-to-Gulf Coast pipelines.