Royce & Associates LP Invests $223,000 in Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU)

Royce & Associates LP acquired a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 8,393 shares of the coal producer’s stock, valued at approximately $223,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of BTU. Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 7.6% during the second quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 10,023 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $222,000 after purchasing an additional 709 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its position in Peabody Energy by 11,390.0% during the 2nd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,149 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 1,139 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in Peabody Energy by 69.7% during the 3rd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 2,802 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 1,151 shares during the last quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. acquired a new stake in Peabody Energy in the third quarter worth $36,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its stake in Peabody Energy by 292.6% in the third quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,057 shares of the coal producer’s stock valued at $55,000 after buying an additional 1,533 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on BTU shares. B. Riley increased their price objective on shares of Peabody Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Peabody Energy from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 10th. Finally, Benchmark raised their target price on Peabody Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st.

Peabody Energy Stock Performance

Shares of BTU opened at $26.61 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $3.23 billion, a PE ratio of 7.02 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 1.75, a current ratio of 2.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $25.50 and a 200 day moving average price of $23.70. Peabody Energy Co. has a 52-week low of $20.21 and a 52-week high of $29.94.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, October 31st. The coal producer reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.58 by $0.16. Peabody Energy had a net margin of 12.24% and a return on equity of 14.74%. The business had revenue of $1.09 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.07 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.80 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Peabody Energy Co. will post 3.15 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Peabody Energy Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be paid a $0.075 dividend. This represents a $0.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, November 14th. Peabody Energy’s dividend payout ratio is presently 7.94%.

Insider Activity

In other Peabody Energy news, CFO Mark Spurbeck sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.52, for a total value of $295,200.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 65,710 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,939,759.20. The trade was a 13.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.