In a report released today, Lucas Pipes from B.Riley FBR maintained a Buy rating on Peabody Energy Corporation Comm (NYSE: BTU), with a price target of $51. The company’s shares opened today at $41.32, close to its 52-week high of $42.66.
Pipes commented:
“Earlier this week, we hosted investor meetings for Peabody Energy (BTU). Svec, SVP Relations, represented the company. The discussions centered on the company’s recent capital return announcement and its strategy in a robust coal market that continues to defy expectations of declining prices. After the company reached the high end of its gross debt target of $1.4B while building liquidity of $1.65B (over double its $800M target) at the end of 1Q18, the company is well positioned to further execute against its expanded share repurchase authorization of $1B. 25 th , Peabody repurchased $400M of shares (5.7M shares to date, 11.5M since inception), leaving plenty of dry powder for what was described as the default position for capital allocation.”
According to TipRanks.com, Pipes is a 5-star analyst with an average return of 9.0% and a 67.0% success rate. Pipes covers the Basic Materials sector, focusing on stocks such as Newmont Mining Corporation, Hallador Energy Company, and Cloud Peak Energy Inc.
Peabody Energy Corporation Comm has an analyst consensus of Moderate Buy, with a price target consensus of $51.
See today’s analyst top recommended stocks >>
Based on Peabody Energy Corporation Comm’s latest earnings release for the quarter ending March 31, the company reported a quarterly net profit of $203 million. In comparison, last year the company had a net profit of $114 million.
TipRanks has tracked 36,000 company insiders and found that a few of them are better than others when it comes to timing their transactions. See which 3 stocks are most likely to make moves following their insider activities.
Peabody Energy Corp. engages in the business of coal mining. It operates through the following segments: Powder River Basin Mining, Midwestern U.S. Mining, Western U.S. Mining, Australian Metallurgical Mining, Australian Thermal Mining, and Trading & Brokerage. The Powder River Basin Mining segment operations consist of its mines in Wyoming. The Midwestern U.
