Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the eight brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com 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 brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $62.33.

CMC has been the topic of several research analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group raised shares of Commercial Metals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $56.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BNP Paribas downgraded shares of Commercial Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $56.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of Commercial Metals in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They set a “buy” rating and a $75.00 target price on the stock.

Institutional Trading of Commercial Metals

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 6.5% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,081,153 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $59,420,000 after buying an additional 66,092 shares in the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 1.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,714,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $94,208,000 after buying an additional 17,931 shares in the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 66.0% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 71,151 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,529,000 after buying an additional 28,297 shares in the last quarter. Vestcor Inc boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 108.0% during the third quarter. Vestcor Inc now owns 18,103 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $995,000 after buying an additional 9,400 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Covea Finance boosted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 19,000 shares in the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Commercial Metals Trading Down 1.3 %

NYSE CMC opened at $48.40 on Tuesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. The firm has a market cap of $5.50 billion, a PE ratio of 43.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $49.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $53.53. Commercial Metals has a 52 week low of $45.50 and a 52 week high of $64.53.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, January 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.78 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.78. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Commercial Metals had a net margin of 1.70% and a return on equity of 9.88%. Commercial Metals’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.49 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commercial Metals Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were issued a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.49%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, January 16th. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 64.86%.

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.