Clearwater Paper (NYSE:CLW) Stock Price Passes Above Two Hundred Day Moving Average – Should You Sell?

Clearwater Paper Corporation (NYSE:CLW) passed above its 200-day moving average during trading on Monday . The stock has a 200-day moving average of $16.20 and traded as high as $16.67. Clearwater Paper shares last traded at $16.6170, with a volume of 240,852 shares trading hands.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on CLW. Wall Street Zen cut Clearwater Paper from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 2nd. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Clearwater Paper from $20.00 to $19.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, April 29th. TD lowered Clearwater Paper from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $19.00 to $17.00 in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. TD Securities lowered Clearwater Paper from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Clearwater Paper in a report on Friday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.00.

Clearwater Paper Price Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.44, a current ratio of 2.61 and a quick ratio of 1.26. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $14.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.20. The stock has a market cap of $267.87 million, a PE ratio of -10.79 and a beta of 0.27.

Clearwater Paper (NYSE:CLW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, April 28th. The basic materials company reported ($1.29) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($1.32) by $0.03. Clearwater Paper had a negative return on equity of 3.94% and a negative net margin of 1.63%.The company had revenue of $360.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $363.55 million.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Clearwater Paper

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of CLW. Optiver Holding B.V. acquired a new stake in Clearwater Paper in the third quarter valued at $44,000. Meeder Asset Management Inc. acquired a new stake in Clearwater Paper in the fourth quarter valued at $47,000. Group One Trading LLC lifted its holdings in Clearwater Paper by 184.4% in the first quarter. Group One Trading LLC now owns 3,572 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 2,316 shares during the period. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its holdings in Clearwater Paper by 34.7% in the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 2,185 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $60,000 after acquiring an additional 563 shares during the period. Finally, New York State Common Retirement Fund lifted its holdings in Clearwater Paper by 104.9% in the third quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund now owns 6,838 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $142,000 after acquiring an additional 3,500 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 89.98% of the company’s stock.

Clearwater Paper Company Profile

Clearwater Paper Corporation is an independent manufacturer of premium tissue and pulp and paperboard products for private-label and commercial customers in North America. The company operates through two core segments: Consumer Products, which produces bathroom tissue, paper towels and other away-from-home tissue products under private-label contracts; and Pulp & Paperboard, which supplies bleached paperboard used in folding cartons, foodservice packaging and specialty paper applications.

The Consumer Products segment services retail grocers, warehouse clubs, online merchants and janitorial distributors, leveraging multiple converting facilities to produce roll and folded tissue items for both household and institutional use.