Ausbil Investment Management Ltd Sells 4,000 Shares of APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA)

Ausbil Investment Management Ltd lessened its holdings in APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA) by 9.5% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 38,000 shares of the company’s stock after selling 4,000 shares during the quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd’s holdings in APA were worth $1,346,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. Harris Associates L P raised its position in shares of APA by 17.8% in the 4th quarter. Harris Associates L P now owns 15,705,693 shares of the company’s stock valued at $563,520,000 after acquiring an additional 2,367,570 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of APA by 5.0% in the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 41,719,129 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,714,656,000 after acquiring an additional 2,003,862 shares during the period. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of APA by 10.6% in the 4th quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 20,299,538 shares of the company’s stock valued at $728,347,000 after acquiring an additional 1,938,335 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its position in shares of APA by 130.0% in the 3rd quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,534,209 shares of the company’s stock valued at $63,037,000 after acquiring an additional 867,257 shares during the period. Finally, Smead Capital Management Inc. raised its position in shares of APA by 13.6% in the 4th quarter. Smead Capital Management Inc. now owns 5,235,957 shares of the company’s stock valued at $187,866,000 after acquiring an additional 626,460 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 83.01% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on APA. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of APA from $54.00 to $57.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 7th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of APA from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, May 10th. Morgan Stanley restated an “underweight” rating and set a $28.00 target price on shares of APA in a report on Monday, April 15th. Roth Mkm lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $37.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $38.00 to $40.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, April 11th. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $40.52.

APA Price Performance

NASDAQ APA traded up $0.12 during trading on Friday, hitting $29.19. 235,697 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 6,490,480. The company has a current ratio of 1.16, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.42. The company has a market cap of $10.84 billion, a PE ratio of 3.25, a P/E/G ratio of 0.34 and a beta of 3.24. APA Co. has a fifty-two week low of $27.17 and a fifty-two week high of $46.15. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $29.94 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $31.82.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.90 by ($0.12). The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.89 billion. APA had a return on equity of 45.32% and a net margin of 34.04%. The firm’s revenue was down 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.19 EPS. Research analysts expect that APA Co. will post 4.47 EPS for the current year.

APA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, August 22nd. Shareholders of record on Monday, July 22nd will be paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, July 22nd. APA’s payout ratio is 11.19%.

APA Profile

APA Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. It has oil and gas operations in the United States, Egypt, and North Sea. The company also has exploration and appraisal activities in Suriname, as well as holds interests in projects located in Uruguay and internationally.