Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP) Rating Increased to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP) was upgraded by research analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Saturday.

EXP has been the topic of several other research reports. Stephens reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and issued a $245.00 price objective on shares of Eagle Materials in a research note on Tuesday, January 20th. Citigroup cut their price objective on Eagle Materials from $232.00 to $224.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. Zacks Research lowered shares of Eagle Materials from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Eagle Materials in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada set a $208.00 price target on shares of Eagle Materials in a report on Tuesday, February 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Eagle Materials has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $228.36.

Eagle Materials Trading Down 4.1%

Shares of Eagle Materials stock opened at $197.13 on Friday. Eagle Materials has a 1-year low of $191.91 and a 1-year high of $243.64. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $222.61 and its 200-day simple moving average is $224.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.17, a current ratio of 4.27 and a quick ratio of 2.68. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.20 billion, a PE ratio of 14.92 and a beta of 1.35.

Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The construction company reported $3.22 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $3.32 by ($0.10). The company had revenue of $555.96 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $556.41 million. Eagle Materials had a return on equity of 28.96% and a net margin of 18.70%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $3.59 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Eagle Materials will post 14.39 earnings per share for the current year.

Institutional Trading of Eagle Materials

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Baupost Group LLC MA boosted its stake in Eagle Materials by 26.1% in the 4th quarter. Baupost Group LLC MA now owns 1,185,248 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $244,967,000 after purchasing an additional 245,588 shares during the period. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC raised its position in shares of Eagle Materials by 36.0% during the second quarter. Frontier Capital Management Co. LLC now owns 830,284 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $167,809,000 after buying an additional 219,627 shares during the last quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Eagle Materials by 0.6% during the third quarter. William Blair Investment Management LLC now owns 615,250 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $143,378,000 after buying an additional 3,505 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Eagle Materials by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 610,645 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $126,217,000 after buying an additional 7,749 shares in the last quarter. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Eagle Materials by 2.5% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 534,380 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $124,532,000 after buying an additional 13,104 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

About Eagle Materials

Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE:EXP) is a Dallas, Texas–based manufacturer of building materials serving construction and heavy industry markets across the United States. The company’s primary products include portland and masonry cements, gypsum wallboard, lightweight aggregate, paperboard packaging, and roofing granules. These product lines support a wide range of end uses—from residential and commercial buildings to infrastructure projects and industrial applications.

Since its spin-off from a major homebuilding company in 2004, Eagle Materials has grown through targeted facility expansions and strategic acquisitions.