CF Industries (NYSE:CF) Posts Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.40 EPS

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday. The basic materials company reported $1.89 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40, Zacks reports. CF Industries had a net margin of 19.45% and a return on equity of 14.57%.

CF Industries Trading Up 0.7 %

CF Industries stock opened at $83.81 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $88.34 and its 200-day simple moving average is $85.50. CF Industries has a 52 week low of $69.13 and a 52 week high of $98.25. The firm has a market capitalization of $14.58 billion, a PE ratio of 13.26, a PEG ratio of 0.38 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 2.81.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 31.65%.

Insider Buying and Selling at CF Industries

In related news, VP Ashraf K. Malik sold 8,889 shares of CF Industries stock in a transaction dated Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $844,455.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,507,745. This trade represents a 35.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 1,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $96.00, for a total value of $144,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 92,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,878,656. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 15,389 shares of company stock valued at $1,455,965 in the last 90 days. 0.48% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CF has been the subject of a number of research reports. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of CF Industries from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada cut CF Industries from an “outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $100.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Piper Sandler upped their target price on CF Industries from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $82.00 to $75.00 in a report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Barclays downgraded CF Industries from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $96.00 to $100.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $92.43.

About CF Industries

CF Industries Holdings, Inc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of hydrogen and nitrogen products for energy, fertilizer, emissions abatement, and other industrial activities in North America, Europe, and internationally. It operates through Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other segments.