Commercial Metals Company $CMC Shares Sold by Principal Financial Group Inc.

Principal Financial Group Inc. reduced its position in Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) by 10.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,285,360 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 157,180 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. owned about 1.16% of Commercial Metals worth $73,625,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.4% in the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 90,989 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $4,186,000 after acquiring an additional 1,219 shares in the last quarter. Amundi lifted its position in Commercial Metals by 13.3% in the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $114,000 after purchasing an additional 291 shares during the period. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 614.9% in the 1st quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 11,767 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $541,000 after purchasing an additional 10,121 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. increased its position in Commercial Metals by 5.8% during the 1st quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,033,514 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,552,000 after purchasing an additional 56,875 shares during the period. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC raised its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 53,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after buying an additional 941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Commercial Metals Trading Up 1.9%

NYSE:CMC opened at $81.93 on Wednesday. Commercial Metals Company has a 52-week low of $37.92 and a 52-week high of $81.95. The company has a quick ratio of 3.70, a current ratio of 4.47 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.77. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $71.59 and a 200-day simple moving average of $62.42. The company has a market capitalization of $9.09 billion, a PE ratio of 21.12, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.43 and a beta of 1.49.

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

Commercial Metals Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, February 2nd. Stockholders of record on Monday, January 19th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 18.56%.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Dennis V. Arriola bought 2,000 shares of Commercial Metals stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 20th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $74.69 per share, with a total value of $149,380.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 9,238 shares in the company, valued at $689,986.22. This represents a 27.63% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.62% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on CMC. Zacks Research upgraded Commercial Metals from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 14th. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Commercial Metals from $68.00 to $85.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, January 9th. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Commercial Metals from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 28th. UBS Group reiterated a “neutral” rating on shares of Commercial Metals in a research note on Monday, October 27th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, January 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Commercial Metals has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $72.70.

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.