Jefferies Financial Group Downgrades Yara International ASA (OTCMKTS:YARIY) to Hold

Yara International ASA (OTCMKTS:YARIY) was downgraded by research analysts at Jefferies Financial Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on YARIY. Citigroup lowered Yara International ASA from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, May 11th. Pareto Securities raised shares of Yara International ASA from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, April 7th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and four have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy”.

Yara International ASA Stock Down 1.4%

YARIY stock opened at $22.01 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.79, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $27.40 and a 200-day simple moving average of $24.96. The company has a market capitalization of $11.21 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.00 and a beta of 0.53. Yara International ASA has a twelve month low of $17.48 and a twelve month high of $31.28.

Yara International ASA (OTCMKTS:YARIY) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.76 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $4.26 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.95 billion. Yara International ASA had a net margin of 8.58% and a return on equity of 23.06%. On average, equities research analysts predict that Yara International ASA will post 3.33 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

About Yara International ASA

Yara International ASA is a Norway-based chemical company that specializes in the production and distribution of mineral fertilizers and nitrogen-based crop nutrition solutions. Headquartered in Oslo, Yara is recognized for its comprehensive portfolio of products that support agricultural productivity, environmental protection and industrial applications. The company’s operations span the entire value chain from ammonia production to the blending and distribution of finished fertilizer products.

The core of Yara’s business centers on nitrogen-based fertilizers including ammonium nitrate, urea, calcium ammonium nitrate and specialty blends designed to optimize crop yield and nutrient use efficiency.