ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Monday morning.

Separately, Barclays dropped their price objective on ICL Group from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th.

ICL Group Trading Down 1.1 %

Shares of ICL opened at $4.22 on Monday. ICL Group has a fifty-two week low of $3.79 and a fifty-two week high of $5.68. The company has a market capitalization of $5.54 billion, a PE ratio of 11.39, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.06 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $4.18 and a two-hundred day moving average of $4.53. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a current ratio of 1.62.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.10 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.09 by $0.01. ICL Group had a return on equity of 8.41% and a net margin of 6.08%. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.13 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that ICL Group will post 0.36 EPS for the current year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were issued a dividend of $0.037 per share. This represents a $0.15 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.51%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, September 4th. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.84%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On ICL Group

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Y.D. More Investments Ltd increased its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 2,927,153.2% in the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 14,636,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $62,766,000 after acquiring an additional 14,635,766 shares during the period. Altshuler Shaham Ltd increased its stake in shares of ICL Group by 3.2% in the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 44,119,257 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $189,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,360,670 shares during the period. Meitav Investment House Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 2.8% during the second quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 17,215,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $73,813,000 after buying an additional 465,031 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of ICL Group by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,894,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $124,719,000 after buying an additional 419,241 shares during the period. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of ICL Group by 931.7% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 320,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,723,000 after buying an additional 289,174 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

ICL Group Company Profile

ICL Group Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty minerals and chemicals company worldwide. It operates in four segments: Industrial Products, Potash, Phosphate Solutions, and Growing Solutions. The Industrial Products segment produces bromine out of a solution that is a by-product of the potash production process, as well as bromine-based compounds; produces various grades of potash, salt, magnesium chloride, and magnesia products; and produces and markets phosphorous-based flame retardants and other phosphorus-based products.