CF Industries (NYSE:CF) Now Covered by The Goldman Sachs Group

The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on shares of CF Industries (NYSE:CF) in a research report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a neutral rating and a $86.00 target price on the basic materials company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Oppenheimer reduced their price target on CF Industries from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. UBS Group reduced their price target on CF Industries from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Barclays reduced their price target on CF Industries from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, March 5th. Scotiabank cut their price objective on CF Industries from $88.00 to $81.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, CF Industries presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.86.

CF Industries Stock Down 1.2 %

CF opened at $76.78 on Thursday. CF Industries has a 12 month low of $69.13 and a 12 month high of $98.25. The company has a market cap of $13.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.34, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.99. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $85.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $85.39.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. CF Industries had a return on equity of 15.50% and a net margin of 20.52%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. On average, equities analysts expect that CF Industries will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Insider Transactions at CF Industries

In related news, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 1,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.00, for a total value of $144,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 92,486 shares in the company, valued at $8,878,656. The trade was a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, VP Ashraf K. Malik sold 8,889 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $844,455.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,507,745. The trade was a 35.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,889 shares of company stock valued at $1,130,955 in the last ninety days. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On CF Industries

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in CF. Norges Bank purchased a new position in CF Industries in the 4th quarter worth approximately $131,350,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in CF Industries by 29.4% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 2,804,718 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $239,299,000 after acquiring an additional 637,784 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in CF Industries by 6.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,830,621 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $753,429,000 after acquiring an additional 543,876 shares during the last quarter. Powszechne Towarzystwo Emerytalne Allianz Polska S.A. purchased a new position in CF Industries in the 4th quarter worth approximately $37,247,000. Finally, Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ raised its holdings in CF Industries by 459.4% in the 4th quarter. Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB publ now owns 435,352 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $36,583,000 after acquiring an additional 357,531 shares during the last quarter. 93.06% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

CF Industries Company Profile

CF Industries Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement, and other industrial activities in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other segments.