CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) Receives $116.56 Average Price Target from Brokerages

Shares of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the twenty-two brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation, five have assigned a buy recommendation and two have given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $116.4706.

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on CF. Freedom Capital raised CF Industries from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Monday, May 18th. UBS Group lifted their price target on CF Industries from $115.00 to $123.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 7th. Weiss Ratings cut CF Industries from a “buy (b)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Friday, August 21st. Freedom Broker downgraded CF Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, August 26th. Finally, Berenberg Bank raised their price objective on CF Industries from $86.00 to $106.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CF Industries

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its stake in shares of CF Industries by 10,624.0% during the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 19,345,196 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,094,311,000 after purchasing an additional 19,164,804 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of CF Industries in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,410,607,000. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in CF Industries by 3.4% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 4,458,907 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $579,062,000 after buying an additional 146,682 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in CF Industries by 15.3% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,587,999 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $321,852,000 after buying an additional 476,769 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in CF Industries by 12.0% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,570,249 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $276,123,000 after buying an additional 381,716 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.06% of the company’s stock.

CF Industries Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of CF opened at $133.06 on Friday. CF Industries has a 1-year low of $75.42 and a 1-year high of $141.96. The company has a current ratio of 4.86, a quick ratio of 4.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $123.95 and its 200-day moving average price is $119.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.86, a PEG ratio of 0.27 and a beta of 0.40.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 5th. The basic materials company reported $4.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $5.63 by ($0.90). The company had revenue of $2.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.45 billion. CF Industries had a return on equity of 24.41% and a net margin of 27.12%.CF Industries’s quarterly revenue was up 17.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.37 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that CF Industries will post 13.7 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, August 31st. Investors of record on Friday, August 14th were paid a $0.60 dividend. This represents a $2.40 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 14th. This is a positive change from CF Industries’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 17.79%.

About CF Industries

CF Industries Holdings, Inc is a global producer of nitrogen fertilizer and other nitrogen-based products. The company manufactures ammonia, granular urea, urea ammonium nitrate (UAN), ammonium nitrate and nitric acid, which are used primarily in agriculture to support crop production. Its industrial products also serve customers in areas such as emissions control, plastics, resins, chemicals and other manufacturing applications.

CF Industries operates production facilities in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom and supplies agricultural and industrial customers in North America and international markets.