Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Downgraded by Wall Street Zen to Sell

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) was downgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note issued on Sunday.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Peabody Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, January 2nd. Benchmark lifted their price objective on shares of Peabody Energy from $23.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, October 31st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Peabody Energy from $27.00 to $29.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, December 12th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Peabody Energy in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, two have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.33.

Peabody Energy Stock Performance

BTU opened at $33.77 on Friday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $29.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $23.68. Peabody Energy has a 52-week low of $9.61 and a 52-week high of $35.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.49 and a current ratio of 1.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.11 billion, a PE ratio of -116.43 and a beta of 0.41.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 30th. The coal producer reported ($0.58) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.19) by ($0.39). Peabody Energy had a negative return on equity of 0.25% and a negative net margin of 0.83%.The company had revenue of $1.01 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $990.20 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.74 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Peabody Energy will post 2.61 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Peabody Energy

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in BTU. Sourcerock Group LLC acquired a new position in Peabody Energy in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,092,000. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Peabody Energy by 19.3% in the second quarter. State Street Corp now owns 9,208,031 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $123,572,000 after acquiring an additional 1,487,531 shares during the period. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in shares of Peabody Energy in the second quarter valued at about $9,039,000. Gate City Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the second quarter worth about $8,645,000. Finally, RPG Investment Advisory LLC bought a new position in Peabody Energy during the second quarter worth about $8,243,000. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Peabody Energy

Peabody Energy Corporation is one of the world’s largest private-sector coal companies, engaged primarily in the production and sale of metallurgical and thermal coal. The company’s operations span surface and underground mines, serving utilities, steel mills and other industrial customers that rely on coal as an essential component in power generation and steelmaking. Peabody’s product portfolio includes high-energy thermal coal for electricity generation and low-volatile metallurgical coal used in steel production, reflecting its diverse end-market reach.

Founded in 1883, Peabody Energy has grown from a regional mining concern into a global energy supplier.