Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the thirteen research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $67.50.

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group restated a “neutral” rating on shares of Commercial Metals in a report on Monday, October 27th. Citigroup upgraded Commercial Metals from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $60.00 to $65.00 in a research report on Friday, October 17th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised Commercial Metals from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $64.00 to $78.00 in a research note on Friday, December 5th. Morgan Stanley raised Commercial Metals from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $57.50 to $68.00 in a research note on Friday, October 24th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Commercial Metals from $68.00 to $79.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, December 15th.

Commercial Metals Stock Down 0.1%

NYSE:CMC opened at $69.52 on Monday. Commercial Metals has a one year low of $37.92 and a one year high of $71.99. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a current ratio of 2.78 and a quick ratio of 2.03. The company has a market cap of $7.72 billion, a PE ratio of 91.47, a P/E/G ratio of 0.39 and a beta of 1.49. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $62.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $57.12.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, October 16th. The basic materials company reported $1.37 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.32 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $2.11 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. Commercial Metals had a net margin of 1.09% and a return on equity of 8.76%. The company’s revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. On average, research analysts anticipate that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current year.

Commercial Metals Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, November 13th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, October 30th were paid a $0.18 dividend. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, October 30th. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio is currently 94.74%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Commercial Metals

In other news, Director John R. Mcpherson bought 1,722 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 20th. The stock was acquired at an average price of $58.09 per share, with a total value of $100,030.98. Following the completion of the purchase, the director directly owned 6,722 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $390,480.98. This represents a 34.44% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.62% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Commercial Metals

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 2.6% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,270,373 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $359,167,000 after acquiring an additional 161,195 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.9% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,641,930 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $208,629,000 after purchasing an additional 67,139 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Commercial Metals by 10.0% during the second quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 3,193,930 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,215,000 after purchasing an additional 290,256 shares during the period. American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in Commercial Metals by 6.6% in the third quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,823,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $104,474,000 after purchasing an additional 112,267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Commercial Metals by 4.8% in the third quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,661,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $95,144,000 after purchasing an additional 76,365 shares in the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.