Friday, January 28, 2011

Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) Led by Solid U.S. Performance

Concerns surrounded Peabody Energy (NYSE:BTU) recently over what type of earnings report they'd have in light of Australian operations, but the U.S. market helped them exceed expectations, and Australia performed better than expected.

Barclays says, "The beat was driven in part by strong U.S. performance coupled with higher than expected revenues at the company's Australian operations. The quarter also benefitted from a lower-than-expected tax rate because of lower contributions from Australia, which has a higher effective tax rate than the company's other operations. Strong results were partially offset by higher-than-expected Australian costs and weaker than expected performance from the company's trading and brokerage division."

Barclays maintains an "Overweight" rating on Peabody Energy (BTU), which closed Thursday at $62.38, down $0.76, or 1.20 percent. Barclays boosted their price target on Peabody from $70 to $75.

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