Qsemble Capital Management LP Purchases New Holdings in Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU)

Qsemble Capital Management LP bought a new position in shares of Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU) during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 11,972 shares of the coal producer’s stock, valued at approximately $318,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. increased its position in Peabody Energy by 45.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pekin Hardy Strauss Inc. now owns 18,051 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $479,000 after purchasing an additional 5,625 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its position in Peabody Energy by 43.0% during the 3rd quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,350 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 1,008 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in Peabody Energy by 14.1% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,388,681 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $36,856,000 after purchasing an additional 171,272 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Peabody Energy by 265,937.3% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 8,023,686 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $212,949,000 after acquiring an additional 8,020,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Intech Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $893,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 87.44% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BTU has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Peabody Energy from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 10th. B. Riley boosted their price target on Peabody Energy from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Benchmark boosted their price target on Peabody Energy from $28.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st.

Peabody Energy Price Performance

BTU stock opened at $24.25 on Thursday. Peabody Energy Co. has a 1 year low of $20.21 and a 1 year high of $29.94. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.75 and a current ratio of 2.32. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $26.00 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.86. The firm has a market cap of $2.95 billion, a P/E ratio of 6.42 and a beta of 0.98.

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

Peabody Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, November 14th will be issued a $0.075 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, November 14th. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.24%. Peabody Energy’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 7.94%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Peabody Energy

In other news, CFO Mark Spurbeck sold 10,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, November 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.52, for a total transaction of $295,200.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 65,710 shares in the company, valued at $1,939,759.20. This represents a 13.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Peabody Energy Profile

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.