KBC Group NV Grows Stake in Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC)

KBC Group NV increased its holdings in Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) by 57.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 4,884 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 1,785 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Commercial Metals were worth $242,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 0.4% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 5,830,412 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $320,439,000 after acquiring an additional 24,665 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in Commercial Metals by 1.0% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,839,601 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $156,093,000 after purchasing an additional 28,019 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in Commercial Metals by 1.9% during the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 2,176,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $119,646,000 after purchasing an additional 41,206 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,714,116 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $94,208,000 after buying an additional 17,931 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,462,317 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $80,369,000 after buying an additional 18,262 shares during the last quarter. 86.90% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently commented on CMC. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on shares of Commercial Metals in a report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price target for the company. Wolfe Research lowered Commercial Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “peer perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 9th. UBS Group raised Commercial Metals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $56.00 to $54.00 in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 6th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on shares of Commercial Metals from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $62.33.

Commercial Metals Price Performance

CMC opened at $47.95 on Wednesday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $52.91 and a 200 day moving average of $54.25. The stock has a market cap of $5.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.20, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.18. The company has a quick ratio of 1.94, a current ratio of 2.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29. Commercial Metals has a 52-week low of $45.50 and a 52-week high of $64.53.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.78 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.78. The firm had revenue of $1.91 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. Commercial Metals had a net margin of 1.70% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The business’s revenue was down 4.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.49 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 EPS for the current year.

Commercial Metals Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, January 16th were paid a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, January 16th. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio is presently 64.86%.

Commercial Metals Company Profile

Commercial Metals Company manufactures, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products, and related materials and services in the United States, Poland, China, and internationally. It operates through two segments, North America and Europe. The company processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals to steel mills and foundries, aluminum sheet and ingot manufacturers, brass and bronze ingot makers, copper refineries and mills, secondary lead smelters, specialty steel mills, high temperature alloy manufacturers, and other consumers.