Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Sees Significant Decrease in Short Interest

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) saw a large decrease in short interest during the month of April. As of April 30th, there was short interest totalling 2,600,000 shares, a decrease of 6.1% from the April 15th total of 2,770,000 shares. Currently, 2.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 863,400 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 3.0 days.

Insider Buying and Selling at Commercial Metals

In other news, Chairman Barbara Smith sold 35,704 shares of Commercial Metals stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $57.88, for a total value of $2,066,547.52. Following the transaction, the chairman now owns 36,196 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,095,024.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 1.00% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Commercial Metals

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in Commercial Metals by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 12,641,427 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $632,577,000 after acquiring an additional 191,345 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its position in Commercial Metals by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 7,611,020 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $380,859,000 after buying an additional 160,228 shares during the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Commercial Metals by 26.7% during the third quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,506,247 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $123,834,000 after buying an additional 527,709 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Commercial Metals during the fourth quarter valued at about $94,722,000. Finally, Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Commercial Metals by 241.3% in the fourth quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 1,809,841 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $90,564,000 after buying an additional 1,279,617 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.90% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CMC shares. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Commercial Metals from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Commercial Metals from $52.00 to $60.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, March 22nd.

Commercial Metals Stock Down 0.5 %

CMC traded down $0.27 on Friday, reaching $57.60. 420,904 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 658,612. The company has a market cap of $6.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.00 and a beta of 1.35. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.27, a current ratio of 4.19 and a quick ratio of 2.69. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $56.16 and its 200-day moving average price is $51.76. Commercial Metals has a 52-week low of $39.85 and a 52-week high of $59.81.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 21st. The basic materials company reported $0.88 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by ($0.05). Commercial Metals had a return on equity of 17.72% and a net margin of 8.09%. The company had revenue of $1.85 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.80 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.44 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Commercial Metals will post 5.34 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Commercial Metals Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 10th. Stockholders of record on Monday, April 1st were issued a dividend of $0.18 per share. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.25%. This is a positive change from Commercial Metals’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.16. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 28th. Commercial Metals’s payout ratio is currently 12.50%.

Commercial Metals Company Profile

Commercial Metals Company manufactures, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products, and related materials and services in the United States, Poland, China, and internationally. It operates through two segments, North America and Europe. The company processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals to steel mills and foundries, aluminum sheet and ingot manufacturers, brass and bronze ingot makers, copper refineries and mills, secondary lead smelters, specialty steel mills, high temperature alloy manufacturers, and other consumers.