Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Has $1.62 Million Stock Position in Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System grew its position in Peabody Energy Co. (NYSE:BTU) by 14.5% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 60,900 shares of the coal producer’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,700 shares during the period. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Peabody Energy were worth $1,616,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Peabody Energy in the third quarter worth about $99,000. Glenorchy Capital Ltd boosted its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 12.0% during the third quarter. Glenorchy Capital Ltd now owns 94,464 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $2,507,000 after purchasing an additional 10,105 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 139.9% during the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 2,756 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $73,000 after purchasing an additional 1,607 shares during the period. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in shares of Peabody Energy by 62.7% during the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 17,757 shares of the coal producer’s stock worth $471,000 after purchasing an additional 6,844 shares during the period. Finally, CX Institutional acquired a new stake in shares of Peabody Energy during the third quarter worth approximately $3,133,000. 87.44% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

BTU has been the subject of several research reports. B. Riley raised their price target 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 raised their price target on shares of Peabody Energy from $25.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 10th.

Peabody Energy Price Performance

Shares of BTU opened at $26.28 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $3.35 billion, a PE ratio of 7.32 and a beta of 0.96. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $24.19 and its 200 day moving average price is $23.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.09, a quick ratio of 1.92 and a current ratio of 2.49. Peabody Energy Co. has a twelve month low of $20.21 and a twelve month high of $27.29.

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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 firm had revenue of $1.09 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.07 billion. Peabody Energy had a net margin of 12.69% and a return on equity of 15.35%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Peabody Energy Co. will post 2.98 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Peabody Energy Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 4th. Investors of record on Thursday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.075 per share. This represents a $0.30 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.14%. Peabody Energy’s payout ratio is presently 8.36%.

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.