Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) Receives Consensus Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Brokerages

Shares of Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the twelve analysts that are covering the company, Marketbeat reports. Four investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and eight have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $72.80.

Several analysts have recently weighed in on CMC shares. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Commercial Metals in a research report on Wednesday, January 21st. Zacks Research cut shares of Commercial Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $84.00 price target on shares of Commercial Metals in a research note on Tuesday, December 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Finally, Jefferies Financial Group set a $85.00 target price on shares of Commercial Metals and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 8th.

Commercial Metals Trading Down 4.6%

CMC opened at $65.12 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77, a quick ratio of 3.70 and a current ratio of 4.47. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $75.65 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.03. Commercial Metals has a one year low of $37.92 and a one year high of $84.87. The stock has a market cap of $7.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.78, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 1.47.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 8th. The basic materials company reported $1.84 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.55 by $0.29. The firm had revenue of $2.12 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.06 billion. Commercial Metals had a return on equity of 11.43% and a net margin of 5.46%.Commercial Metals’s quarterly revenue was up 11.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.78 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Commercial Metals Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Investors of record on Monday, January 19th were issued a $0.18 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 16th. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Commercial Metals’s payout ratio is presently 18.56%.

Insider Activity at Commercial Metals

In other news, Director Dennis V. Arriola bought 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 20th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $74.69 per share, for a total transaction of $149,380.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 9,238 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $689,986.22. This represents a 27.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Jennifer J. Durbin sold 25,050 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.97, for a total value of $2,003,248.50. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 52,880 shares in the company, valued at $4,228,813.60. The trade was a 32.14% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Commercial Metals

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in Commercial Metals by 0.6% during the 4th quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 23,199 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,606,000 after acquiring an additional 133 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Commercial Metals by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC now owns 4,904 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $339,000 after purchasing an additional 149 shares in the last quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of Commercial Metals by 0.7% in the 4th quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 23,554 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,630,000 after purchasing an additional 155 shares in the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 2.3% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 7,867 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $451,000 after purchasing an additional 180 shares during the period. Finally, Spire Wealth Management lifted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 42.4% in the 3rd quarter. Spire Wealth Management now owns 615 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 183 shares during the period. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Commercial Metals

Commercial Metals Company (NYSE: CMC) is a leading global steel and metal recycler, manufacturer and fabricator based in Irving, Texas. The company operates an integrated network of scrap recycling facilities, electric arc furnace steel mills, metal fabrication plants and distribution centers. Through these operations, Commercial Metals collects and processes ferrous scrap to produce finished steel products and provides recycled metal to a variety of end markets.

In its steelmaking segment, CMC uses electric arc furnace technology to transform recycled scrap into reinforcing bar (rebar), merchant bar, coil and structural products.