KBC Group NV Boosts Position in GMS Inc. (NYSE:GMS)

KBC Group NV grew its holdings in shares of GMS Inc. (NYSE:GMS) by 4,496.9% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 53,416 shares of the company’s stock after buying an additional 52,254 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV owned 0.14% of GMS worth $4,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in GMS. FMR LLC increased its holdings in GMS by 25.3% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,232,170 shares of the company’s stock valued at $383,308,000 after purchasing an additional 854,987 shares in the last quarter. Weiss Asset Management LP purchased a new stake in shares of GMS during the 3rd quarter valued at about $12,490,000. Verition Fund Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of GMS by 48.3% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 340,388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,829,000 after buying an additional 110,876 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in GMS by 412.5% during the 3rd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 77,181 shares of the company’s stock worth $6,990,000 after acquiring an additional 62,120 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barclays PLC grew its position in GMS by 374.0% in the third quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 70,580 shares of the company’s stock valued at $6,392,000 after acquiring an additional 55,690 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 95.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently commented on GMS. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of GMS from $93.00 to $80.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. Royal Bank of Canada restated a “sector perform” rating and set a $86.00 price objective (up from $78.00) on shares of GMS in a report on Friday, December 6th. DA Davidson reduced their target price on GMS from $97.00 to $94.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Robert W. Baird dropped their price target on shares of GMS from $115.00 to $110.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Loop Capital increased their price objective on shares of GMS from $85.00 to $93.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, November 25th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $93.57.

GMS Stock Performance

Shares of GMS opened at $86.15 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.34 billion, a PE ratio of 15.84 and a beta of 1.73. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $89.04 and its 200 day moving average price is $90.66. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.97, a current ratio of 2.23 and a quick ratio of 1.44. GMS Inc. has a 12-month low of $77.29 and a 12-month high of $105.54.

GMS (NYSE:GMS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 5th. The company reported $2.02 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.26 by ($0.24). GMS had a return on equity of 20.67% and a net margin of 3.92%. The business had revenue of $1.47 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.46 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.30 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that GMS Inc. will post 7.26 EPS for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, COO George T. Hendren sold 5,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.13, for a total transaction of $510,650.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer now directly owns 23,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,427,834.36. This represents a 17.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 1.90% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

GMS Company Profile

GMS Inc distributes wallboard, ceilings, steel framing and complementary construction products in the United States and Canada. The company offers ceilings products, including suspended mineral fibers, soft fibers, and metal ceiling systems primarily used in offices, hotels, hospitals, retail facilities, schools, and various other commercial and institutional buildings.