Cooper Financial Group Raises Holdings in APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA)

Cooper Financial Group grew its stake in shares of APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA) by 2.5% during the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 15,396 shares of the company’s stock after acquiring an additional 376 shares during the quarter. Cooper Financial Group’s holdings in APA were worth $526,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of APA by 54.3% in the first quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 17,087,769 shares of the company’s stock worth $616,185,000 after buying an additional 6,015,475 shares during the last quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in APA during the 1st quarter worth about $121,788,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership grew its stake in APA by 191.1% during the 1st quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,144,248 shares of the company’s stock valued at $129,952,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,022 shares during the last quarter. Clearbridge Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of APA in the fourth quarter valued at about $73,939,000. Finally, BlackRock Inc. raised its stake in shares of APA by 4.1% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 27,525,712 shares of the company’s stock worth $992,577,000 after purchasing an additional 1,073,681 shares during the last quarter. 80.48% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

APA Stock Performance

NASDAQ APA opened at $42.46 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.29, a current ratio of 0.99 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $41.73 and its 200-day simple moving average is $37.13. The company has a market cap of $13.05 billion, a PE ratio of 9.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 3.53. APA Co. has a 1-year low of $30.67 and a 1-year high of $50.58.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 3rd. The company reported $0.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.66 by $0.19. The company had revenue of $1.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.74 billion. APA had a net margin of 16.14% and a return on equity of 117.05%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 41.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $2.37 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that APA Co. will post 4.42 EPS for the current fiscal year.

APA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, November 22nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, October 23rd will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.36%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 20th. APA’s dividend payout ratio is currently 21.41%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently weighed in on APA. Piper Sandler increased their price target on shares of APA from $42.00 to $46.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 14th. StockNews.com initiated coverage on APA in a research report on Wednesday, August 23rd. They set a “hold” rating on the stock. Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $59.00 price objective on shares of APA in a report on Wednesday, August 16th. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on APA from $47.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 8th. Finally, Raymond James decreased their price target on APA from $53.00 to $51.00 and set a “strong-buy” rating for the company in a report on Monday, July 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $47.43.

APA Profile

APA Corporation, through its subsidiaries, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. 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, compression, processing, and transmission assets in West Texas, as well as holds ownership in four Permian Basin long-haul pipeline.