Hershey Financial Advisers LLC Purchases Shares of 42,287 APA Corporation $APA

Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new stake in APA Corporation (NASDAQ:APA) in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 42,287 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,795,000. APA makes up 1.6% of Hershey Financial Advisers LLC’s holdings, making the stock its 19th largest position.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cedar Mountain Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of APA in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. Summit Securities Group LLC boosted its holdings in APA by 115.1% in the fourth quarter. Summit Securities Group LLC now owns 1,327 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 710 shares during the last quarter. Camelot Portfolios LLC acquired a new stake in APA during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $37,000. Global Assets Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in APA during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Finally, Cary Street Partners Investment Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in APA during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $47,000. 83.01% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, VP Mark D. Maddox sold 9,800 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the vice president directly owned 66,810 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,675,072.40. This represents a 12.79% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.73% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

APA has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Roth Capital upgraded shares of APA from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $37.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of APA from $35.00 to $41.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, May 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on shares of APA from $38.00 to $41.00 in a research note on Friday, May 8th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of APA from $40.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their target price on shares of APA from $45.00 to $41.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. 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 stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $40.42.

APA Trading Up 2.7%

Shares of APA stock opened at $35.22 on Friday. APA Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $17.86 and a fifty-two week high of $45.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.58, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a current ratio of 0.92. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.52. The company has a market cap of $12.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.21 and a beta of 0.35.

APA (NASDAQ:APA) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 6th. The company reported $1.38 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.11 by $0.27. The firm had revenue of $2.33 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.13 billion. APA had a return on equity of 20.70% and a net margin of 17.38%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.06 EPS. Research analysts forecast that APA Corporation will post 5 earnings per share for the current year.

APA Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, August 21st. Investors of record on Wednesday, July 22nd will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.8%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, July 22nd. APA’s payout ratio is presently 23.31%.

About APA

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.