Wall Street Zen Upgrades Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) to “Strong-Buy”

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) was upgraded by investment analysts at Wall Street Zen from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Saturday, Wall Street Zen reports.

Several other analysts have also commented on the company. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised Methanex from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $69.00 to $71.00 in a research note on Monday, July 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada dropped their price objective on Methanex from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 1st. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of Methanex from a “sell (d+)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. National Bank Financial set a $70.00 target price on shares of Methanex and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Finally, Zacks Research downgraded shares of Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Methanex presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $68.56.

Methanex Price Performance

Shares of Methanex stock opened at $58.43 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $4.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 56.73 and a beta of 0.71. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $57.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $57.38. Methanex has a twelve month low of $32.00 and a twelve month high of $66.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 2.07.

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.87 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by ($0.13). Methanex had a return on equity of 11.35% and a net margin of 2.07%.The business had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.97 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 75.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Methanex will post 8.6 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in MEOH. Engineers Gate Manager LP lifted its position in Methanex by 482.8% during the 2nd quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 75,384 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $3,479,000 after buying an additional 62,449 shares in the last quarter. Nykredit A S acquired a new stake in Methanex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $83,000. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust bought a new position in shares of Methanex in the second quarter worth about $38,000. Readystate Asset Management LP bought a new position in shares of Methanex in the second quarter worth about $2,255,000. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC lifted its position in shares of Methanex by 530.8% during the second quarter. Headlands Technologies LLC now owns 29,267 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,351,000 after purchasing an additional 24,627 shares in the last quarter. 73.49% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Methanex

Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ:MEOH) is a global producer and supplier of methanol, a basic chemical used in the manufacture of formaldehyde, acetic acid, plastics, paints, adhesives, solvents and other products. Methanol is also used in fuel applications, including as a blending component and as a feedstock for the production of other fuels and chemicals.

Founded in 1992 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Methanex operates an international production and distribution network.