D.A. Davidson & CO. Buys New Stake in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF)

D.A. Davidson & CO. bought a new stake in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 5,565 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $475,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. FMR LLC increased its stake in CF Industries by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,286,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $711,003,000 after acquiring an additional 300,050 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its position in CF Industries by 0.4% in the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,567,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $477,668,000 after buying an additional 22,392 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. boosted its position in CF Industries by 15.1% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,188,648 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $359,386,000 after buying an additional 549,569 shares in the last quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in CF Industries by 10.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,300,485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $111,582,000 after buying an additional 120,193 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its position in CF Industries by 8.6% in the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,187,445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $101,313,000 after buying an additional 93,560 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at CF Industries

In other news, VP Ashraf K. Malik sold 8,889 shares of CF Industries stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $844,455.00. Following the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,507,745. This trade represents a 35.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 3,500 shares of CF Industries stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.86, for a total transaction of $325,010.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 62,768 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,828,636.48. This represents a 5.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 15,389 shares of company stock valued at $1,455,965 over the last three months. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

CF Industries Trading Up 1.2 %

Shares of NYSE CF opened at $78.40 on Wednesday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $87.57 and its 200 day simple moving average is $85.64. CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $69.13 and a fifty-two week high of $98.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $13.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.58, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a current ratio of 3.08 and a quick ratio of 2.52.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.49 by $0.40. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 15.50%. The business had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. On average, analysts predict that CF Industries Holdings, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. CF Industries’s payout ratio is presently 29.54%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have commented on CF. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered shares of CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Finally, Scotiabank reduced their target price on shares of CF Industries from $88.00 to $81.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $91.14.

About CF Industries

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.