Lazard Asset Management LLC Has $4.80 Million Position in Methanex Corporation $MEOH

Lazard Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) by 23.3% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 80,562 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 15,224 shares during the period. Lazard Asset Management LLC owned 0.10% of Methanex worth $4,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its position in Methanex by 629.5% during the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,316,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $92,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,998,763 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Methanex in the fourth quarter valued at about $34,872,000. Boston Partners raised its position in shares of Methanex by 686.0% in the third quarter. Boston Partners now owns 963,408 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $38,277,000 after purchasing an additional 840,831 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Methanex by 116.8% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,157,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $46,011,000 after buying an additional 623,502 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FIL Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Methanex by 40.3% during the 4th quarter. FIL Ltd now owns 1,803,108 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $71,520,000 after buying an additional 518,173 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

MEOH has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of Methanex from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded shares of Methanex from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $69.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Scotiabank boosted their price objective on Methanex from $70.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut Methanex from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $56.00 to $65.00 in a report on Friday, May 1st. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, June 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Methanex presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.56.

Methanex Stock Performance

NASDAQ:MEOH opened at $55.55 on Friday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $54.07 and a 200-day moving average price of $54.47. The company has a market cap of $4.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.93 and a beta of 0.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a current ratio of 2.07. Methanex Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $32.00 and a fifty-two week high of $66.75.

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $4.00 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.43 billion. Methanex had a return on equity of 11.35% and a net margin of 2.07%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.97 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Methanex Corporation will post 8.7 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Methanex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 16th will be paid a dividend of $0.185 per share. This represents a $0.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 16th. Methanex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 71.84%.

Methanex Profile

Methanex Corporation is a Vancouver, Canada–based company and one of the world’s largest producers and suppliers of methanol. The company manufactures methanol, a key feedstock for a wide range of chemical products and industrial applications. Methanex markets its product to customers in energy, plastics, paints and coatings, and various chemical sectors, positioning the company as a critical link in the global supply chain for basic chemicals.

The company’s core product, methanol, serves as a building block for downstream chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetic acid and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).