APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA) Declares Quarterly Dividend of $0.25

APA Co. (NASDAQ:APA) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 6th,RTT News reports. Investors of record on Tuesday, April 22nd will be given a dividend of 0.25 per share on Thursday, May 22nd. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.62%.

APA has increased its dividend by an average of 61.5% annually over the last three years. APA has a payout ratio of 29.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect APA to earn $3.63 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 27.5%.

APA Trading Down 2.5 %

Shares of APA stock traded down $0.55 on Thursday, hitting $21.64. The stock had a trading volume of 5,239,087 shares, compared to its average volume of 6,470,433. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $22.80 and a 200 day moving average of $24.86. APA has a twelve month low of $20.32 and a twelve month high of $36.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.03, a quick ratio of 1.24 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 3.15.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on APA shares. Wells Fargo & Company cut APA from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $42.00 to $25.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Truist Financial decreased their price objective on shares of APA from $36.00 to $33.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, November 8th. Bernstein Bank decreased their price objective on shares of APA from $30.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Friday, October 18th. Mizuho reduced their target price on shares of APA from $25.00 to $24.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Piper Sandler reduced their target price on shares of APA from $26.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating, four have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $30.65.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Juliet S. Ellis acquired 4,391 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, December 12th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $22.78 per share, for a total transaction of $100,026.98. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 12,436 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $283,292.08. The trade was a 54.58 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.30% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About APA

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.