Easterly Investment Partners LLC Trims Stock Holdings in Commercial Metals Company $CMC

Easterly Investment Partners LLC lowered its stake in shares of Commercial Metals Company (NYSE:CMC) by 26.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 320,825 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 112,680 shares during the period. Commercial Metals makes up 1.4% of Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s portfolio, making the stock its 8th biggest position. Easterly Investment Partners LLC’s holdings in Commercial Metals were worth $22,208,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in CMC. Royal Bank of Canada boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 1.4% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 90,989 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $4,186,000 after buying an additional 1,219 shares during the last quarter. Amundi boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 13.3% during the first quarter. Amundi now owns 2,480 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $114,000 after buying an additional 291 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp boosted its holdings in Commercial Metals by 614.9% during the first quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 11,767 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $541,000 after buying an additional 10,121 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 5.8% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,033,514 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $47,552,000 after purchasing an additional 56,875 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC boosted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 1.8% during the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 53,305 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,453,000 after purchasing an additional 941 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on CMC. Morgan Stanley reissued an “overweight” rating and set a $83.00 price target on shares of Commercial Metals in a research report on Friday. Barclays began coverage on shares of Commercial Metals in a research report on Thursday, May 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $75.00 price target on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Commercial Metals to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, May 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Commercial Metals from $83.00 to $78.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, April 14th. Finally, Zacks Research cut Commercial Metals from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $77.10.

Commercial Metals Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of NYSE:CMC opened at $76.21 on Monday. Commercial Metals Company has a 12 month low of $45.50 and a 12 month high of $84.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.55, a current ratio of 2.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.75. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $67.27 and its 200 day simple moving average is $69.51. The firm has a market cap of $8.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.97, a PEG ratio of 0.45 and a beta of 1.50.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.28 by ($0.12). Commercial Metals had a return on equity of 13.54% and a net margin of 6.02%.The company had revenue of $2.13 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $2.10 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.26 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 21.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts forecast that Commercial Metals Company will post 6.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commercial Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 15th. Investors of record on Monday, April 6th were given a $0.20 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, April 6th. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. This is a boost from Commercial Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.18. Commercial Metals’s payout ratio is 16.04%.

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.