APA (NASDAQ:APA) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

APA (NASDAQ:APA) had its price target lifted by Morgan Stanley from $22.00 to $43.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “underweight” rating on the stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price would indicate a potential downside of 2.14% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Stephens upped their price target on shares of APA from $23.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Roth Mkm upped their price objective on APA from $23.00 to $27.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 26th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of APA from $23.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Monday, March 16th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of APA from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Finally, Johnson Rice raised shares of APA from a “hold” rating to an “accumulate” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $35.00 to $40.00 in a research report on Thursday, December 4th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, twenty have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $33.81.

APA Price Performance

Shares of APA stock traded up $1.14 during trading on Friday, reaching $43.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,747,480 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,832,036. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $30.33 and a 200-day moving average price of $26.33. APA has a 12-month low of $13.58 and a 12-month high of $44.38. The company has a market capitalization of $15.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.03 and a beta of 0.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61.

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

Insider Activity at APA

In other news, Director Matthew Regis Bob sold 23,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.23, for a total transaction of $833,290.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,634 shares in the company, valued at $240,349.82. This represents a 77.61% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.69% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On APA

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in APA. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. grew its stake in shares of APA by 0.4% during the 4th quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 106,667 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,609,000 after buying an additional 375 shares during the period. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in APA by 39.2% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 185,873 shares of the company’s stock valued at $4,547,000 after acquiring an additional 52,376 shares during the last quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in APA during the fourth quarter valued at about $244,000. Compound Planning Inc. increased its stake in APA by 45.5% during the fourth quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 15,173 shares of the company’s stock worth $371,000 after acquiring an additional 4,744 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV increased its stake in APA by 13.5% during the fourth quarter. Mercer Global Advisors Inc. ADV now owns 102,471 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,506,000 after acquiring an additional 12,211 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.