Uncovering Institutional Buying In APi Group Corporation (NYSE: APG)

BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in APi Group Corporation (NYSE:APG). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.74% to 12.96 million shares with purchase of 0.22 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.54% valued currently at $304.36 million. In addition, Allspring Global Investments LLC raised its holdings by 0.59 million to 10.68 million shares. And Alua Capital Management LP has lifted its position by 11.45% or 0.53 million shares – to 5.12 million shares.

With over 1.92 million APi Group Corporation (APG) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $21.50 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $41.19 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 33.62% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -0.32%. Currently, there are 233.00M common shares owned by the public and among those 205.42M shares have been available to trade.

An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 10 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for APG have a consensus price objective of $27.00. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $30.00 and a low of $21.00. The average price target is 22.3% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -2.38% over that period. But an upside of 28.33% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $27.50.

Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 35 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 32 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 392,114 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 3 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 91,858 shares.

The top 3 mutual fund holders in APi Group Corporation are Fidelity Small Cap America Fund, Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, and Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund. Fidelity Small Cap America Fund owns 8.02 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $188.41 million. The company bought an additional 1.6 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.43% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 8798.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 5.76 million shares valued at over $135.25 million and representing 2.46% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund bought 26532.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 4.85 million shares at a value of $113.88 million. Vanguard Small Cap Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.07% of the shares outstanding.

Shares of APi Group Corporation (NYSE: APG) opened at $21.11, down -$0.46 from a prior closing price of $21.57. However, the script later moved the day high at 21.91, down -0.32%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -9.32% and 13.28% over the past three months. APG shares are trading 14.30% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 4.47% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $13.09 and touched a high of $24.49 over the same period. APG has an average intraday trading volume of 869.85K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -5.87%, 0.46%, and 20.95% respectively.

Institutional ownership of APi Group Corporation (NYSE: APG) shares accounts for 86.70% of the company’s 233.00M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 34.88%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 40.49% and 11.55% respectively.

It has a market capitalization of $5.31B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.74. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 233.70, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $0.09. The company has a PEG of 14.34 and a Quick Ratio of 1.30 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 1.32. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 4.01% over the week and 3.17% over the month.

Analysts forecast that APi Group Corporation (APG) will achieve an EPS of $0.34 for the current quarter, $0.26 for the next quarter and $1.46 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $0.31 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.36. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.29 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 116.40%, and 17.39% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 16.30% over the next five years, compared to -34.80% over the past 5-year period.

If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 10 brokerage firm advisors rate APi Group Corporation (APG) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.20. Specifically, 5 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 10 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”

Looking at the support for the APG, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. BofA Securities stated their Buy rating for the stock in a research note on July 11, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $23. JP Morgan coverage for the APi Group Corporation (APG) stock in a research note released on June 17, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $17. RBC Capital Mkts was of a view on March 25, 2022 that the stock is Sector Perform, while BofA Securities gave the stock Neutral rating on March 22, 2022, issuing a price target of $23. Robert W. Baird on their part issued Neutral rating on January 10, 2022.