Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Price Target Cut to $26.00 by Analysts at Benchmark

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) had its target price dropped by investment analysts at Benchmark from $30.00 to $26.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “buy” rating on the coal producer’s stock. Benchmark’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 63.47% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other equities analysts also recently commented on BTU. Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Peabody Energy from $30.00 to $26.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 6th. BMO Capital Markets raised shares of Peabody Energy from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $26.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th.

Peabody Energy Price Performance

Shares of NYSE BTU traded down $0.45 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $15.91. The company had a trading volume of 3,135,340 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,283,080. Peabody Energy has a 1-year low of $15.79 and a 1-year high of $29.94. The stock has a market cap of $1.93 billion, a PE ratio of 4.20 and a beta of 0.95. The company has a current ratio of 2.32, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $20.16 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $22.84.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 6th. The coal producer reported $0.28 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.53 by ($0.25). Peabody Energy had a return on equity of 14.74% and a net margin of 12.24%. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Peabody Energy will post 2.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Peabody Energy

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 265,937.3% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 8,023,686 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $212,949,000 after buying an additional 8,020,670 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 7.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 7,631,707 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $202,546,000 after buying an additional 540,219 shares during the period. Progeny 3 Inc. increased its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 1.6% in the 3rd quarter. Progeny 3 Inc. now owns 3,580,014 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $95,014,000 after buying an additional 56,280 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 8.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,918,536 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $77,473,000 after buying an additional 216,887 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 9.7% in the 4th quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,422,400 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $29,785,000 after buying an additional 125,372 shares during the period. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corporation engages in coal mining business in the United States, Japan, Taiwan, Australia, India, Brazil, Belgium, Chile, France, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, South Korea, Germany, and internationally. The company operates through Seaborne Thermal, Seaborne Metallurgical, Powder River Basin, Other U.S.