Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) Upgraded at Zacks Research

Zacks Research upgraded shares of Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) from a strong sell rating to a hold rating in a report issued on Monday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on NX. Benchmark cut their price objective on Quanex Building Products from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Quanex Building Products from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 10th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Quanex Building Products in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Quanex Building Products has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.00.

Quanex Building Products Stock Up 0.4%

Shares of NYSE:NX opened at $19.60 on Monday. The company’s fifty day moving average is $19.09 and its 200-day moving average is $16.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a current ratio of 2.04. Quanex Building Products has a 52 week low of $11.04 and a 52 week high of $22.98. The company has a market capitalization of $900.42 million, a PE ratio of -3.57, a P/E/G ratio of 0.66 and a beta of 0.91.

Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The construction company reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.33. The firm had revenue of $489.85 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $472.62 million. Quanex Building Products had a negative net margin of 13.65% and a positive return on equity of 12.46%. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.61 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Quanex Building Products will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quanex Building Products Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th will be given a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 17th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. Quanex Building Products’s payout ratio is currently -5.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Teleios Capital Partners Gmbh sold 119,485 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.94, for a total value of $1,904,590.90. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 4,421,879 shares in the company, valued at $70,484,751.26. This represents a 2.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 1.92% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LSV Asset Management boosted its holdings in Quanex Building Products by 658.9% during the third quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 204,900 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,914,000 after buying an additional 177,900 shares during the last quarter. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new stake in shares of Quanex Building Products in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $2,440,000. Villanova Investment Management Co LLC raised its position in shares of Quanex Building Products by 105.8% in the 3rd quarter. Villanova Investment Management Co LLC now owns 144,059 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $2,049,000 after acquiring an additional 74,074 shares during the period. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P boosted its stake in Quanex Building Products by 32.9% during the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 548,831 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $10,373,000 after acquiring an additional 135,875 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new position in Quanex Building Products during the second quarter valued at approximately $455,000. 97.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Quanex Building Products

Quanex Building Products Corporation engages in the design, manufacture and distribution of components for the window, door and building products industries in North America. The company operates through two primary segments: Window Products and Door & Building Products. Its Window Products segment supplies vinyl window profiles and related accessories, while its Door & Building Products segment offers engineered door skins, panels, siding products, specialty moldings and other exterior building components.

Within its Window Products segment, Quanex produces extrusion profiles used by window fabricators to assemble vinyl casement, double-hung, slider and picture windows.