Clough Capital Partners L P Purchases New Shares in APA Corporation $APA

Clough Capital Partners L P acquired a new position in shares of APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 75,542 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,206,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of APA. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of APA by 0.4% in the fourth 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 last quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in APA by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 28,171 shares of the company’s stock valued at $689,000 after acquiring an additional 396 shares during the last quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC grew its stake in shares of APA by 3.2% in the 4th quarter. Patriot Financial Group Insurance Agency LLC now owns 14,648 shares of the company’s stock valued at $358,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares during the last quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management increased its holdings in shares of APA by 520.8% in the first quarter. Hollencrest Capital Management now owns 596 shares of the company’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 500 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of APA by 0.4% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 130,869 shares of the company’s stock valued at $3,201,000 after purchasing an additional 527 shares during the period. 83.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

APA has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of APA from $32.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of APA from $44.00 to $41.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, June 26th. Zacks Research cut shares of APA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 26th. Jefferies Financial Group raised their price objective on shares of APA from $26.00 to $36.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, April 13th. Finally, Wolfe Research boosted their target price on APA from $45.00 to $47.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, April 6th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eighteen have assigned a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, APA currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.35.

APA Stock Performance

NASDAQ APA opened at $36.15 on Monday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.56 and a 200-day moving average of $33.98. APA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $17.86 and a fifty-two week high of $45.66. The stock has a market cap of $12.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.43 and a beta of 0.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.92, a current ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.27. The company had revenue of $2.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.13 billion. APA had a net margin of 17.38% and a return on equity of 20.70%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 11.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.06 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that APA Corporation will post 4.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

APA Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 21st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, July 22nd will be paid a $0.25 dividend. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, July 22nd. APA’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 23.31%.

Insider Transactions at APA

In related news, VP Mark D. Maddox sold 9,800 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, May 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $40.04, for a total transaction of $392,392.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president owned 66,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,675,072.40. This represents a 12.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.73% of the company’s stock.

APA 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.