Financial Comparison: APA Group (APAJF) vs. Its Competitors

APA Group (OTCMKTS:APAJF) is one of 46 publicly-traded companies in the “Gas Utilities” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare APA Group to similar businesses based on the strength of its dividends, earnings, profitability, valuation, institutional ownership, analyst recommendations and risk.

Profitability

This table compares APA Group and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
APA Group	N/A	N/A	N/A
APA Group Competitors	20.21%	7.87%	3.65%

Dividends

APA Group pays an annual dividend of $0.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 4.0%. APA Group pays out 72.4% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Gas Utilities” companies pay a dividend yield of 12.3% and pay out 17.4% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. APA Group lags its peers as a dividend stock, given its lower dividend yield and higher payout ratio.

Analyst Ratings

This is a breakdown of recent ratings and price targets for APA Group and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
APA Group	0	1	0	0	2.00
APA Group Competitors	457	1372	1146	53	2.26

APA Group presently has a consensus target price of $9.00, suggesting a potential upside of 26.23%. As a group, “Gas Utilities” companies have a potential upside of 11.97%. Given APA Group’s higher probable upside, research analysts clearly believe APA Group is more favorable than its peers.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

20.7% of APA Group shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 52.7% of shares of all “Gas Utilities” companies are owned by institutional investors. 10.3% of shares of all “Gas Utilities” companies are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a stock is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares APA Group and its peers gross revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
APA Group	N/A	N/A	18.13
APA Group Competitors	$2.97 billion	$316.42 million	35.86

APA Group’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than APA Group. APA Group is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Summary

APA Group peers beat APA Group on 12 of the 13 factors compared.

About APA Group

APA Group engages in the energy infrastructure business in Australia. The company operates through Energy Infrastructure, Asset Management, and Energy Investments segments. It operates gas transmission pipelines and interconnected grids, gas-fired power stations, electricity transmission interconnectors, solar and wind farms, and battery energy storage systems, as well as gas storage, processing, and compression facilities. The company also has interests in approximately 15,000 kilometers of gas transmission pipelines; approximately 29,500 kilometers of gas mains and pipelines; and 1.5 million gas consumer connections. It also provides asset management and operating services to its energy investments and third parties; and invests in energy infrastructure. The company is headquartered in Sydney, Australia.