Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Upgraded by Barclays to Hold Rating

Barclays upgraded shares of Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) to a hold rating in a report released on Thursday,Zacks.com reports.

Other equities analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group raised shares of Commercial Metals from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $79.00 to $89.00 in a research note on Wednesday, May 13th. Zacks Research cut shares of Commercial Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of Commercial Metals from $83.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, April 14th. KeyCorp assumed coverage on shares of Commercial Metals in a research note on Wednesday, March 25th. They issued a “sector weight” rating for the company. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Commercial Metals in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Commercial Metals currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $74.82.

Commercial Metals Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:CMC opened at $71.87 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $65.93 and a 200 day moving average of $68.84. The stock has a market cap of $7.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.01, a P/E/G ratio of 0.41 and a beta of 1.49. Commercial Metals has a 12 month low of $45.50 and a 12 month high of $84.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.38, a quick ratio of 1.55 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 26th. The basic materials company reported $1.16 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.28 by ($0.12). Commercial Metals had a net margin of 6.02% and a return on equity of 13.54%. The firm had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.10 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.26 EPS. Commercial Metals’s revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Commercial Metals will post 6.51 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commercial Metals Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 6th were paid a $0.20 dividend. This is a positive change from Commercial Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 6th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio is currently 16.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Commercial Metals

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.5% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 6,361,477 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $440,341,000 after purchasing an additional 91,104 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.9% in the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,641,930 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $208,629,000 after purchasing an additional 67,139 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 3.1% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,926,864 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $202,626,000 after purchasing an additional 86,749 shares in the last quarter. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 1,823,923 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $104,474,000 after purchasing an additional 112,267 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Commercial Metals by 4.8% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,661,027 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $95,144,000 after purchasing an additional 76,365 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

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.