Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) Stock Has Average Target Price of $33.88

Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the six analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $34.12.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. B. Riley Financial raised shares of Peabody Energy from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $29.00 to $30.00 in a research report on Monday, October 26th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Peabody Energy from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Peabody Energy from $27.00 to $26.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Benchmark cut their price target on shares of Peabody Energy from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Finally, Zacks Research lowered Peabody Energy from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BTU. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its position in shares of Peabody Energy by 2.8% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 24,328 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $723,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares during the period. Valued Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Peabody Energy during the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in Peabody Energy by 1.6% in the first quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 56,694 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $1,868,000 after buying an additional 886 shares during the period. Meeder Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 1,513.7% during the 1st quarter. Meeder Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,178 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $39,000 after buying an additional 1,105 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its stake in Peabody Energy by 42.6% during the first quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 3,730 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $123,000 after buying an additional 1,115 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Peabody Energy Price Performance

BTU opened at $22.21 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a current ratio of 2.01 and a quick ratio of 1.46. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $25.82 and its 200-day moving average price is $28.18. Peabody Energy has a 52-week low of $20.06 and a 52-week high of $41.14.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 29th. The coal producer reported ($0.74) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by ($0.36). Peabody Energy had a negative return on equity of 5.22% and a negative net margin of 4.56%. The business had revenue of $1 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.02 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.23) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that Peabody Energy will post -0.70 EPS for the current year.

About Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corp. is a global coal producer and supplier of energy and industrial fuels. The company mines, processes and markets thermal coal, which is primarily used for electricity generation, and metallurgical coal, which is used in steelmaking. Peabody also provides coal-trading and logistics services and works with customers to transport products to domestic and international markets.

Peabody operates mines in the United States and Australia, serving electric utilities, steel producers and other industrial customers.