Morgan Stanley analyst Devin McDermott said he views yesterday's decline in Apache's stock price as fair, as he views the operational update, but no results, for its highly anticipated Maka-1 well in Suriname as having a negative read-through for the pending results. If Suriname proves unsuccessful, he sees 18% further downside, McDermott tells investors. He keeps an Underweight rating on Apache shares with an $18 price target.

Piper Sandler raised the firm's price target on APA Corp. to $35 from $33 and keeps a Neutral rating on the shares as part of a Q1 preview for the exploration and production group. Energy has been hot, almost too hot, as $90 crude potentially cools the pace of consolidation and investors looking for ways to play the data center and power demand theme turn to gas equities, the analyst tells investors in a research note. The firm adjusted oil and gas price assumptions, expecting crude pricing to remain strong through Q3 and gas pricing pressure to persist through the balance of fiscal 2024.