Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Stock Falls 3.7% – Time to Sell?

Shares of Peabody Energy Corporation (NYSE:BTU) traded down 3.7% during trading on Tuesday. The company traded as low as $22.77 and last traded at $22.89. 320,653 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 3,005,755 shares. The stock had previously closed at $23.77.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on BTU shares. B. Riley Financial lowered their target price on shares of Peabody Energy from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Weiss Ratings upgraded Peabody Energy from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research note on Friday, October 2nd. Benchmark lowered their target price on shares of Peabody Energy from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 30th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Peabody Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 28th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their target price on Peabody Energy from $27.00 to $26.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, three have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Peabody Energy presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $33.88.

Peabody Energy Price Performance

The firm has a market cap of $2.74 billion, a P/E ratio of -14.97 and a beta of 0.33. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $26.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $25.64. The company has a current ratio of 2.01, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The coal producer reported ($0.74) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.38) by ($0.36). The company had revenue of $1 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.02 billion. Peabody Energy had a negative net margin of 4.56% and a negative return on equity of 5.22%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted ($0.23) earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that Peabody Energy Corporation will post 0.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peabody Energy Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, September 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, August 12th were given a $0.0750 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, August 12th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. Peabody Energy’s payout ratio is -20.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Peabody Energy

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 387.1% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 1,556,305 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $35,982,000 after acquiring an additional 1,236,770 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Peabody Energy in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $22,393,000. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in Peabody Energy by 331.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,211,411 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $39,916,000 after purchasing an additional 930,451 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 1,139.3% during the first quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 328,139 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $10,812,000 after purchasing an additional 301,661 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 35.0% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 740,760 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $24,408,000 after purchasing an additional 192,153 shares during the last quarter. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.