ICL Group Ltd. $ICL Shares Bought by Assenagon Asset Management S.A.

Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its stake in shares of ICL Group Ltd. (NYSE:ICL) by 11.9% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,596,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 169,866 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A.’s holdings in ICL Group were worth $9,167,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its stake in shares of ICL Group by 34.4% in the second quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 10,008,447 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $68,693,000 after acquiring an additional 2,563,805 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in ICL Group by 120.2% in the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,153,799 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $23,635,000 after acquiring an additional 2,267,245 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in ICL Group in the 2nd quarter valued at about $7,798,000. Bank of America Corp DE lifted its stake in ICL Group by 29.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,138,899 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $14,716,000 after purchasing an additional 488,750 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in ICL Group by 1.6% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 28,683,603 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $179,100,000 after buying an additional 451,440 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on ICL shares. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of ICL Group in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of ICL Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $6.10.

ICL Group Stock Performance

Shares of ICL stock opened at $5.20 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $5.32 and its two-hundred day moving average is $5.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.71 and a current ratio of 1.33. ICL Group Ltd. has a 1 year low of $4.76 and a 1 year high of $7.35. The firm has a market cap of $6.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.56 and a beta of 0.99.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, February 18th. The basic materials company reported $0.09 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.70 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.77 billion. ICL Group had a return on equity of 7.44% and a net margin of 3.16%. Analysts predict that ICL Group Ltd. will post 0.37 earnings per share for the current year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 25th. Shareholders of record on Tuesday, March 10th were paid a dividend of $0.0465 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 10th. This represents a $0.19 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.6%. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 82.35%.

About ICL Group

ICL Group is a global specialty minerals and chemicals company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Established in its current form through the consolidation of Israeli government–owned chemical operations, ICL has evolved into a publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ICL). The company’s origins date back to state-driven mineral extraction in the Negev and the Dead Sea region, and over the decades it has grown through strategic acquisitions, technological innovation and a gradual privatization process completed in the early 2010s.

ICL’s core operations are organized into three principal business areas.