APA Corporation (APA)
🔔 Watch stock
symbol.quality_heading
The business works in principle, but one material question is open. As long as it stays open, our findings do not carry a quality verdict.
The next quarterly report (10-Q) for the second quarter of 2026 is due on August 6, 2026, and answers three questions at once: does the realized U.S. gas price stay negative (company estimate $(2.20) per Mcf)? Does the trading margin repeat (guided at $345 million before tax)? And does operating cash flow recover? The decision is yours.
symbol.quality_note
APA Corporation produces oil and gas in West Texas, in the Egyptian desert and in the U.K. North Sea. Five quarters in a row its reported earnings came in above the analyst consensus, most recently by 158 percent — which is why the stock sits at rank 34 of 81 in our in-house Big Earnings Surprise ranking for the U.S. selection (as of July 25, 2026). The quarterly filing also contains a number you read twice: for its U.S. natural gas APA realized an average of $(0.32) per Mcf in the first quarter of 2026. The company paid to have the gas taken away. Meanwhile net income rose to $446 million while operating cash flow halved to $554 million. We read the filings to find out where the money actually comes from — and what $3.8 billion of cleanup obligations have to do with the North Sea. Know the numbers and the surprise stops being surprising.
Read the analysis
Stock Watch
This analysis is as of July 25, 2026. Stock Watch will tell you what's changed at APA since then.
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Appears in These Scanners
This stock currently matches 17 of our scanner strategies — each hit links to the scanner.
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Trading Day
Key levels of the most recently completed trading day — not a live quote.
52-Week Range
Current price 37.30 $ — 73% of the range above the low.
Lowest and highest closing price over the last 52 weeks. The marker shows where the current price sits within that range: close to the high speaks for strength, close to the low for weakness.
Basics
Performance
Technical Indicators
Calculated from the price history · as of 08/03/2026
Valuation
Profitability
Balance Sheet & Safety
Growth
Dividend
Quality & Screener
AI Rating
NeutralIn den sechs ausgewerteten SEC-Berichten (zwei Geschäftsberichte 10-K, vier Quartalsberichte 10-Q) kommt kein einziger Treffer auf „artificial intelligence“, „machine learning“ oder „generative AI“ vor — APA verkauft keine KI, setzt keine belegte KI-Anwendung ein und nennt KI auch nicht als Risiko für das eigene Fördergeschäft.
View the full file — quotes, sources, reviewed filings
Filings Reviewed: 10-K 2026-02-26 · 10-K 2025-02-28 · 10-Q 2026-05-07 · 10-Q 2025-11-06 · 10-Q 2025-08-07 · 10-Q 2025-05-08
Rated on July 25, 2026 · How the Rating Is Built
Analysts & Price Target
The price target sits 11.6% above the current price.
- Consensus
- Hold
- Analyst Ratings
- 29
Combined picture of the price targets and recommendations of every analyst covering the stock. Price targets are expectations for the next 12 months, not promises — and they often follow the price rather than predict it.
Estimates by Fiscal Year
| Fiscal Year | EPS Estimate ($) | EPS Range ($) | Revenue Estimate ($M) | Expected Growth | Analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12/31/2026 | 5.62 | 3.73 – 7.53 | 9,038 | 49.1% | 23 |
| 12/31/2027 | 4.12 | 1.75 – 6.42 | 7,997 | -26.6% | 22 |
Average of the analyst estimates for the coming fiscal years. The range shows how far the most optimistic and the most cautious estimate sit apart — the wider it is, the less certain the expectation.
Next Reporting Date
- Expected Earnings per Share
- 1.85 $
Expected date of the next quarterly or annual figures. Dates do shift occasionally — only the invitation issued by the company is binding.
Revenue & Profit
Cash Flow
Balance Sheet
Margins
Per Share
Click the chart or tab into it, then use ← and → to step through the periods.
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· Total · per year
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The figures could not be loaded right now.
Source: fundamental data
Quarterly Figures
| Quarter | EPS (Earnings Per Share) | EPS YoY (%) | Sales ($M) | Sales YoY (%) | Net Margin (%) | OCF ($M) | FCF ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024: Q2 | 1.17 | 37.60 | 2,543 | 41.60 | 21.30 | 877 | 121 |
| 2024: Q3 | 1.00 | -24.80 | 2,531 | 9.70 | -8.80 | 1,339 | 472 |
| 2024: Q4 | 0.79 | -31.30 | 2,712 | 25.10 | 13.10 | 1,036 | 342 |
| 2025: Q1 | 1.06 | 35.90 | 2,636 | 35.10 | 13.20 | 1,096 | 306 |
| 2025: Q2 | 0.87 | -25.60 | 2,178 | -14.40 | 27.70 | 1,181 | 514 |
| 2025: Q3 | 0.93 | -7.00 | 2,115 | -16.40 | 9.70 | 1,460 | 741 |
| 2025: Q4 | 0.91 | 15.20 | 1,991 | -26.60 | 14.00 | 808 | 218 |
| 2026: Q1 | 1.38 | 30.20 | 2,327 | -11.70 | 19.20 | 554 | 12 |
- EPS (Earnings Per Share):
- Quarterly profit divided by the total share count — how much of the profit works out to a single share.
- YoY (Year over Year):
- Change versus the same quarter a year ago — this is how you compare without seasonal distortion (e.g. the holiday shopping season).
- Sales:
- All revenue for the quarter, before any costs are deducted — the top line of the income statement.
- Net Margin:
- What percentage of sales is left over as profit in the end. Negative means the company is posting a loss.
- OCF (Operating Cash Flow):
- The cash that actually flows into the till from the core business during the quarter — harder to dress up than book profit.
- FCF (Free Cash Flow):
- Operating cash flow minus capital expenditures — the money that's genuinely free to use, say for paying down debt, buybacks, or dividends.
Annual Figures
| Fiscal Year | Revenue ($M) | EBIT ($M) | Net Income ($M) | EPS ($) | Operating Cash Flow ($M) | Equity ($M) | Total Assets ($M) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 5,367 | -144 | -1,405 | -3.71 | 2,430 | 7,679 | 22,519 |
| 2017 | 5,887 | 847 | 1,304 | 3.40 | 2,428 | 7,416 | 21,922 |
| 2018 | 7,348 | 1,969 | 40 | 0.10 | 3,777 | 7,130 | 21,582 |
| 2019 | 6,491 | 445 | -3,515 | -9.32 | 2,867 | 3,255 | 18,107 |
| 2020 | 4,435 | 173 | -4,784 | -12.66 | 1,388 | -1,639 | 12,746 |
| 2021 | 7,985 | 2,692 | 1,135 | 3.03 | 3,496 | -1,595 | 13,303 |
| 2022 | 11,075 | 5,082 | 3,674 | 11.03 | 4,943 | 423 | 13,147 |
| 2023 | 8,279 | 3,358 | 2,855 | 9.24 | 3,129 | 2,655 | 15,244 |
| 2024 | 9,737 | 3,199 | 804 | 2.28 | 3,620 | 5,280 | 19,390 |
| 2025 | 8,920 | 2,750 | 1,434 | 3.99 | 4,545 | 6,093 | 18,998 |
Fiscal years from the audited annual reports, oldest first. EBIT is the operating profit before interest and taxes; total assets are everything the company owns.
Assessment: Opportunities & Risks
Total debt fell from roughly $6.0 billion at the end of 2024 to $4,493 million at the end of 2025 and $4,414 million as of March 31, 2026. Operating cash flow reached $4,545 million in 2025, $925 million above the prior year. Two credit facilities of $2.0 billion and £1.5 billion run to January 2030 and were entirely undrawn as of March 31, 2026.
Reported earnings per share came in above consensus for five consecutive quarters, most recently by 158 percent in the first quarter of 2026 (data as of July 25, 2026). One driver is documented: the gross margin on resales of purchased volumes, $310 million in the first quarter of 2026 alone.
The average realized U.S. gas price was negative in the first quarter of 2026 at $(0.32) per Mcf, down from $2.00 a year earlier. For the second quarter of 2026 APA itself estimates $(2.20) per Mcf and reports curtailments of 137 MMcf/d of gas and 12,300 barrels per day of natural gas liquids (8-K of July 8, 2026).
First-quarter 2026 net income rose to $446 million, yet operating cash flow halved to $554 million from $1,096 million. After $542 million of capital spending almost nothing remained; no shares were repurchased in the quarter, even though the company targets returning 60 percent of free cash flow.
Asset retirement obligations of $2,880 million and a Gulf of America contingency of $881 million stand as of December 31, 2025, against $6,093 million of equity attributable to APA shareholders. The auditor flagged the North Sea retirement obligation as a critical audit matter; production there is expected to cease before 2030.
One third of the Egyptian business belongs to Sinopec; excluding that minority, Egypt contributed 23 rather than 31 percent of 2025 production. Growth rests on GranMorgu offshore Suriname, a $10.5 billion project with first oil in 2028 — TotalEnergies carries 87.5 percent of the first $10 billion of gross spending, APA 12.5 percent.
APA Corporation is a deleveraged, cost-disciplined producer with a genuine growth option offshore Suriname — and at the same time a company whose recent earnings beats rest substantially on a trading margin tied to a bottleneck in West Texas. Its own U.S. gas fetched a negative price in the first quarter of 2026, operating cash flow halved, and the balance sheet carries roughly $3.8 billion of cleanup obligations. Buying here means buying an oil name with a gas problem, a North Sea wind-down and a project that only delivers in 2028. Not investment advice.
- Hook: rank 34 of 81 in our in-house stock scanner "Big Earnings Surprise" (U.S. selection), RS rating 74, fundamental score 8 of 9, as of July 25, 2026. The scanner lists are recomputed daily.
- Easily confused: APA Corporation (CIK 0001841666) has been the holding company since March 1, 2021; its subsidiary Apache Corporation (CIK 0000006769) still files its own debt documents. Some market data feeds still list APA under the old Apache identifier. Not to be confused with the Apache Software Foundation, which has nothing to do with the company.
- All valuation and consensus figures are as of July 25, 2026. Balance sheet, earnings and production figures come from the 10-K for 2025 (February 26, 2026), the 10-Q for March 31, 2026 (May 7, 2026) and the 8-K supplemental release of July 8, 2026.
About the Company
APA Corporation, an independent energy company, explores for, develops, and produces natural gas, crude oil, and natural gas liquids. The company has oil and gas operations in the United States, Egypt, and North Sea. It also has exploration and appraisal activities in Suriname, as well as holds interests in projects located in Uruguay and internationally. APA Corporation was incorporated in 1954 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
| Employees | 1,791 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Houston, TX |
| Address | 2000 W. Sam Houston Pkwy. S., 77042-3643 Houston, United States |
| Phone | 713 296 6000 |
| Website | apacorp.com |
| IPO Date | 15. May 1979 |
| ISIN | US03743Q1085 |
| Stock Split | 2:1 on 01/15/2004 |
Management
| Name | Title | Birth Year |
|---|---|---|
| John J. Christmann IV | CEO & Director | 1967 |
| Stephen J. Riney | President | 1961 |
| Ben C. Rodgers | Executive VP & CFO | 1980 |
| Kimberly O. Warnica J.D. | Executive VP, Chief Legal Officer & Corporate Secretary | 1974 |
| Tracey K. Henderson | Executive Vice President of Exploration | 1967 |
| Robert P. Rayphole | VP, Chief Accounting Officer & Controller | 1974 |
| Aneil Kochar | VP & Treasurer | – |
Executives per the latest required filings; titles kept in their original language. Source: fundamental data.
Chart
Interactive price chart (TradingView).
Data as of: July 31, 2026 · Source: fundamental data & SEC filings (annual and quarterly reports, 10-K/10-Q)
Note: pure fact-based analysis, not investment advice and not a solicitation to buy or sell. All figures without guarantee.