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Santos is an oil & gas e&p business based in Australia. Santos shares (STO) are listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) and all prices are in Australian dollars. Santos has a trailing 12-month revenue of around $4.7 billion. If you're looking to buy shares, check out the steps below.
How to buy shares in Santos
- Compare share trading platforms. To buy shares listed in Australia, you'll need to sign up to a broker with access to the ASX. Our table can help you choose.
- Open and fund your brokerage account. Complete an application with your personal and financial details, such as your ID and tax file number. Fund your account with a bank transfer, PayPal or debit card.
- Search for Santos. Find the share by name or ticker symbol: STO. Research its history to confirm it's a solid investment against your financial goals.
- Purchase now or later. Buy today with a market order or use a limit order to delay your purchase until Santos reaches your desired price. Look into dollar-cost averaging to spread out your risk, which smooths out buying at consistent intervals and amounts.
- Decide on how many to buy. At today's price, weigh your budget against a diversified portfolio that can minimise risk through the market's ups and downs.
- Check on your investment. Congratulations, you own a part of Santos. Optimise your portfolio by tracking how your stock and the business performs with an eye on the long term. You may be eligible for dividends and shareholder voting rights on directors and management that affect your stock.
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What's in this guide?
- Santos key stats
- Compare share trading platforms
- Is Santos stock a buy or sell?
- Santos performance over time
- Is Santos suitable for ethical investing?
- Are Santos shares over-valued?
- Santos's financials
- How volatile are Santos shares?
- Does Santos pay a dividend?
- Have Santos shares ever split?
- Other common questions
Santos stock price (ASX:STO)
Use our graph to track the performance of STO stocks over time.Santos shares at a glance
52-week range | $5.7415 - $8.79 |
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50-day moving average | $8.1074 |
200-day moving average | $7.2401 |
Target price | $9.65 |
PE ratio | 20.6118 |
Dividend yield | $0.14 (2.32%) |
Earnings per share (TTM) | $0.425 |
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Is it a good time to buy Santos stock?
The technical analysis gauge below displays real-time ratings for the timeframes you select. However, this is not a recommendation. It represents a technical analysis based on the most popular technical indicators: Moving Averages, Oscillators and Pivots. Finder might not concur and takes no responsibility.
Santos price performance over time
Historical closes compared with the last close of A$8.53
1 week (2022-06-03) | 1.55% |
---|---|
1 month (2022-05-11) | 7.03% |
3 months (2022-03-11) | 12.68% |
6 months (2021-12-10) | 31.64% |
1 year (2021-06-11) | 11.21% |
---|---|
2 years (2020-06-11) | 52.32% |
3 years (2019-06-11) | 24.16% |
5 years (2017-06-09) | 173.40% |
Is Santos under- or over-valued?
Valuing Santos stock is incredibly difficult, and any metric has to be viewed as part of a bigger picture of Santos's overall performance. However, analysts commonly use some key metrics to help gauge the value of a stock.
Santos's P/E ratio
Santos's current share price divided by its per-share earnings (EPS) over a 12-month period gives a "trailing price/earnings ratio" of roughly 21x. In other words, Santos shares trade at around 21x recent earnings.
That's relatively low compared to, say, the P/E ratio for the ASX over the 12 months to December 2019 (32.14). The low P/E ratio could mean that investors are pessimistic about the outlook for the shares or simply that they're under-valued.
Santos's PEG ratio
Santos's "price/earnings-to-growth ratio" can be calculated by dividing its P/E ratio by its growth – to give 0.35. A low ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer better value, while a higher ratio can be interpreted as meaning the shares offer worse value.
The PEG ratio provides a broader view than just the P/E ratio, as it gives more insight into Santos's future profitability. By accounting for growth, it could also help you if you're comparing the share prices of multiple high-growth companies.
Santos's EBITDA
Santos's EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) is $2.5 billion (£1.4 billion).
The EBITDA is a measure of a Santos's overall financial performance and is widely used to measure a its profitability.
Santos financials
Revenue TTM | $4.7 billion |
---|---|
Operating margin TTM | 28.01% |
Gross profit TTM | $1.7 billion |
Return on assets TTM | 3.46% |
Return on equity TTM | 6.32% |
Profit margin | 13.96% |
Book value | 4.03 |
Market capitalisation | $29.7 billion |
TTM: trailing 12 months
Santos's environmental, social and governance track record
Environmental, social and governance (known as ESG) criteria are a set of three factors used to measure the sustainability and social impact of companies like Santos.
When it comes to ESG scores, lower is better, and lower scores are generally associated with lower risk for would-be investors.
Santos's total ESG risk score
Total ESG risk: 45.54
Socially conscious investors use ESG scores to screen how an investment aligns with their worldview, and Santos's overall score of 45.54 (as at 12/31/2018) is pretty weak – landing it in it in the 89th percentile of companies rated in the same sector.
ESG scores are increasingly used to estimate the level of risk a company like Santos is exposed to within the areas of "environmental" (carbon footprint, resource use etc.), "social" (health and safety, human rights etc.), and "governance" (anti-corruption, tax transparency etc.).
Santos's environmental score
Environmental score: 25.24/100
Santos's environmental score of 25.24 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Santos is a leader in its sector terms of its environmental impact, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Santos's social score
Social score: 16.87/100
Santos's social score of 16.87 puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. This could suggest that Santos is a leader in its sector when it comes to taking good care of its workforce and the communities it impacts.
Santos's governance score
Governance score: 15.94/100
Santos's governance score puts it squarely in the 9th percentile of companies rated in the same sector. That could suggest that Santos is a leader in its sector when it comes to responsible management and strategy, and exposed to a lower level of risk.
Santos's controversy score
Controversy score: 2/5
ESG scores also evaluate any incidences of controversy that a company has been involved in. Santos scored a 2 out of 5 for controversy – the second-highest score possible, reflecting that Santos has, for the most part, managed to keep its nose clean.
Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) summary
Santos Limited was last rated for ESG on: 2019-01-01.
Total ESG score | 45.54 |
---|---|
Total ESG percentile | 89.06 |
Environmental score | 25.24 |
Environmental score percentile | 9 |
Social score | 16.87 |
Social score percentile | 9 |
Governance score | 15.94 |
Governance score percentile | 9 |
Level of controversy | 2 |
Santos share dividends
Dividend payout ratio: 34.21% of net profits
Recently Santos has paid out, on average, around 34.21% of net profits as dividends. That has enabled analysts to estimate a "forward annual dividend yield" of 2.32% of the current stock value. This means that over a year, based on recent payouts (which are sadly no guarantee of future payouts), Santos shareholders could enjoy a 2.32% return on their shares, in the form of dividend payments. In Santos's case, that would currently equate to about A$0.14 per share.
While Santos's payout ratio might seem fairly standard, it's worth remembering that Santos may be investing much of the rest of its net profits in future growth.
The latest dividend was paid out to all shareholders who bought their shares by 20 February 2022 (the "ex-dividend date").
Have Santos's shares ever split?
Santos's shares were split on 12 March 2009.
Santos share price volatility
Over the last 12 months, Santos's shares have ranged in value from as little as $5.7415 up to $8.79. A popular way to gauge a stock's volatility is its "beta".
Beta measures a share's volatility in relation to the market. The market (AU average) beta is 1, while Santos's is 1.7202. This would suggest that Santos's shares are more volatile than the average for this exchange and represent, relatively speaking, a higher risk (but potentially also market-beating returns).
Santos overview
Santos Limited explores for, develops, produces, transports, and markets hydrocarbons for homes and businesses in Australia and the Asia Pacific. Its five principal assets are located in the Cooper Basin, Queensland and NSW, Papua New Guinea, Northern Australia and Timor-Leste, and Western Australia. The company also holds an asset in Alaska; and engages in the development of carbon capture and storage technologies. In addition, it produces natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, ethane, methane, coal seam gas, liquefied natural gas, shale gas, and condensate, as well as oil. The company's proved plus probable reserves include 1676 million barrels of oil equivalent. Santos Limited was incorporated in 1954 and is headquartered in Adelaide, Australia.
Santos in the news
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