APA rewards shareholders

Article Excerpt

APA CORP. $44 is a hold. The company (New York symbol APA; Aggressive Growth Portfolio, Resources sector; Shares outstanding: 321.5 million; Market cap: $14.1 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 2.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.apacorp.com) produces oil and natural gas in the U.S., Egypt and the U.K. APA now plans to return 60% of its free cash flow (regular cash flow less capital expenditures) to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. As a result, it doubled the quarterly dividend with the November 2022 payment, to $0.25 a share from $0.125. The new annual rate of $1.00 yields 2.3%. APA also spent $1.4 billion in 2022 on buybacks. The company plans to allocate its remaining free cash flow to debt repayments: its long-term debt was $5.4 billion as of September 30, 2022, which is a manageable 38% of its market cap. However, cash flow could suffer if slowing global economic growth cuts oil demand and prices. APA Corp. is a hold. hold. …