ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) Upgraded by StockNews.com to “Strong-Buy” Rating

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a report published on Tuesday.

Separately, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, August 16th.

ICL Group Price Performance

ICL stock opened at $4.42 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $5.81 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.26, a PEG ratio of 6.05 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $4.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $4.35. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30. ICL Group has a 12-month low of $3.79 and a 12-month high of $5.54.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.03. ICL Group had a return on equity of 8.31% and a net margin of 5.83%. The company had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.11 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that ICL Group will post 0.34 earnings per share for the current year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.0133 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.20%. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 48.39%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in ICL. Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio purchased a new stake in ICL Group in the third quarter worth $589,000. XTX Topco Ltd purchased a new stake in shares of ICL Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $126,000. Stifel Financial Corp grew its position in shares of ICL Group by 65.0% in the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 591,187 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,513,000 after buying an additional 232,842 shares during the period. Point72 Asset Management L.P. bought a new position in shares of ICL Group in the 3rd quarter worth about $1,316,000. Finally, Verition Fund Management LLC lifted its position in ICL Group by 48.9% during the 3rd quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC now owns 30,469 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $129,000 after acquiring an additional 10,000 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

About ICL Group

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.