Share Buyback Plan Initiated by CF Industries (NYSE:CF) Board

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $2.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Scotiabank upgraded CF Industries from a “sector underperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $81.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, April 9th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of CF Industries from $79.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on shares of CF Industries in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 price objective for the company. Barclays decreased their price target on CF Industries from $95.00 to $87.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $89.50.

CF Industries Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CF opened at $81.24 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.77 billion, a PE ratio of 12.00, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 3.08 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $76.32 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $83.24. CF Industries has a twelve month low of $67.34 and a twelve month high of $98.25.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.85 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.47 by $0.38. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 15.50%. CF Industries’s revenue was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.03 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that CF Industries will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 15th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.46%. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

CF Industries Company Profile

CF Industries Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement, and other industrial activities in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other segments.