VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al Makes New $63.10 Million Investment in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. $CF

VIRGINIA RETIREMENT SYSTEMS ET Al purchased a new position in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 685,918 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $63,104,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in CF Industries by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 21,040,601 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,644,323,000 after buying an additional 319,343 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 4.5% in the first quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,055,283 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $473,220,000 after acquiring an additional 262,944 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of CF Industries by 4.4% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 5,708,643 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $446,130,000 after purchasing an additional 240,756 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners raised its stake in CF Industries by 9.3% during the 1st quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,623,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $283,169,000 after purchasing an additional 307,092 shares during the period. Finally, Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its holdings in CF Industries by 16.8% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 3,275,464 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $255,977,000 after purchasing an additional 470,746 shares in the last quarter. 93.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Zacks Research cut shares of CF Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of CF Industries from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $75.00 to $92.00 in a research note on Tuesday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of CF Industries from $101.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. BNP Paribas lowered CF Industries from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 21st. Finally, UBS Group decreased their target price on CF Industries from $101.00 to $96.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $96.92.

CF Industries Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:CF opened at $83.59 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $86.64 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $87.18. CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has a 52 week low of $67.34 and a 52 week high of $104.45. The company has a quick ratio of 2.84, a current ratio of 3.22 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.91 and a beta of 0.93.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The basic materials company reported $2.37 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.35 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $1.89 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.19% and a return on equity of 17.10%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 20.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $2.30 EPS. On average, analysts expect that CF Industries Holdings, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 14th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, November 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.4%. CF Industries’s payout ratio is currently 26.11%.

CF Industries Company Profile

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.