Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Upgraded to “Buy” at B. Riley Financial

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) was upgraded by research analysts at B. Riley Financial from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Briefing.com reports. The brokerage presently has a $30.00 price objective on the coal producer’s stock. B. Riley Financial‘s price objective would suggest a potential upside of 31.19% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on BTU. Weiss Ratings raised shares of Peabody Energy from a “sell (d)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 2nd. UBS Group cut their price target on Peabody Energy from $27.00 to $26.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 4th. Zacks Research raised Peabody Energy from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 28th. Finally, Benchmark lowered their price objective on Peabody Energy from $40.00 to $36.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 30th. Three equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.12.

Peabody Energy Trading Down 0.1%

BTU stock opened at $22.87 on Monday. Peabody Energy has a 52 week low of $20.06 and a 52 week high of $41.14. The company has a market capitalization of $2.79 billion, a PE ratio of -15.25 and a beta of 0.33. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $26.24 and its 200 day simple moving average is $25.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.10, a quick ratio of 1.46 and a current ratio of 2.01.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 29th. The coal producer reported ($0.74) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate 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 analyst estimates of $1.02 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned ($0.23) EPS. Peabody Energy’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Peabody Energy will post 0.33 earnings per share for the current year.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Peabody Energy

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. X Square Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,470,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $1,776,000. Wealth High Governance Capital Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy during the 1st quarter worth approximately $3,463,000. Wealth High Governance Asset Management Ltda. bought a new position in Peabody Energy in the first quarter valued at approximately $2,959,000. Finally, Susquehanna Advisors Group Inc. bought a new position in Peabody Energy in the second quarter valued at approximately $1,081,000. 87.44% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Peabody Energy Company Profile

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.