Apache Corporation Stock Downgraded (APA)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Apache Corporation (NYSE:APA) has been downgraded by TheStreet Ratings from buy to hold. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its revenue growth, largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures and good cash flow from operations. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including unimpressive growth in net income and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself.

Highlights from the ratings report include:

• APA's revenue growth has slightly outpaced the industry average of 11.9%. Since the same quarter one year prior, revenues rose by 14.9%. This growth in revenue does not appear to have trickled down to the company's bottom line, displayed by a decline in earnings per share.
• APA's debt-to-equity ratio is very low at 0.27 and is currently below that of the industry average, implying that there has been very successful management of debt levels. Although the company had a strong debt-to-equity ratio, its quick ratio of 0.73 is somewhat weak and could be cause for future problems.
• Despite any intermediate fluctuations, we have only bad news to report on this stock's performance over the last year: it has tumbled by 30.51%, worse than the S&P 500's performance. Consistent with the plunge in the stock price, the company's earnings per share are down 30.06% compared to the year-earlier quarter. Naturally, the overall market trend is bound to be a significant factor. However, in one sense, the stock's sharp decline last year is a positive for future investors, making it cheaper (in proportion to its earnings over the past year) than most other stocks in its industry. But due to other concerns, we feel the stock is still not a good buy right now.
• The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Oil, Gas & Consumable Fuels industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 29.7% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $1,134.00 million to $797.00 million.

Apache Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. The company has a P/E ratio of 7.8, equal to the average energy industry P/E ratio and below the S&P 500 P/E ratio of 17.7. Apache has a market cap of $32.43 billion and is part of the basic materials sector and energy industry. Shares are down 10.4% year to date as of the close of trading on Tuesday.

You can view the full Apache Ratings Report or get investment ideas from our investment research center.

-- Written by a member of TheStreet Ratings Staff

TheStreet ratings do not represent the views of TheStreet's staff or its contributors. Ratings are established by computer based on metrics for performance (which includes growth, stock performance, efficiency and valuation) and risk (volatility and solvency). Companies with poor cash flow or high debt levels tend to earn lower ratings in our model.

For more information on Apache Corporation click any of the following:

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• Apache Corporation Income Statement