Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $60.33.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on CMC. BMO Capital Markets decreased their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 21st. UBS Group decreased their price objective on Commercial Metals from $54.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, March 24th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on Commercial Metals from $56.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 7th. BNP Paribas lowered Commercial Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group dropped their price objective on Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th.

Insider Activity at Commercial Metals

In related news, Director John R. Mcpherson purchased 2,475 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 4th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $40.42 per share, with a total value of $100,039.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director now directly owns 15,141 shares in the company, valued at approximately $611,999.22. This trade represents a 19.54 % increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 6.5% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,081,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $59,420,000 after acquiring an additional 66,092 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,714,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $94,208,000 after purchasing an additional 17,931 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 66.0% in the 4th quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,151 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,529,000 after purchasing an additional 28,297 shares during the last quarter. Covea Finance grew its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 44.2% during the fourth quarter. Covea Finance now owns 62,000 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,075,000 after purchasing an additional 19,000 shares during the period. Finally, Spring Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in Commercial Metals in the fourth quarter valued at about $248,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Commercial Metals Price Performance

Shares of Commercial Metals stock opened at $41.70 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $46.71 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $51.71. Commercial Metals has a fifty-two week low of $37.92 and a fifty-two week high of $64.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 1.94. The company has a market cap of $4.71 billion, a PE ratio of 37.56, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.16.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.31 by ($0.05). The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. Commercial Metals had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 1.70%. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.88 EPS. Commercial Metals’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Commercial Metals Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 31st were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 31st. Commercial Metals’s payout ratio is presently 120.00%.

About Commercial Metals

Commercial Metals Company manufactures, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products, and related materials and services in the United States, Poland, China, and internationally. It operates through two segments, North America and Europe. The company processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals to steel mills and foundries, aluminum sheet and ingot manufacturers, brass and bronze ingot makers, copper refineries and mills, secondary lead smelters, specialty steel mills, high temperature alloy manufacturers, and other consumers.