Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.18

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 19th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be given a dividend of 0.18 per share by the basic materials company on Wednesday, April 9th. This represents a $0.72 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.56%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 31st.

Commercial Metals has increased its dividend payment by an average of 11.5% per year over the last three years. Commercial Metals has a dividend payout ratio of 16.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Commercial Metals to earn $4.69 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.72 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 15.4%.

Commercial Metals Price Performance

Commercial Metals stock opened at $46.15 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $48.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $52.65. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 1.94. The company has a market capitalization of $5.24 billion, a PE ratio of 41.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17. Commercial Metals has a one year low of $42.62 and a one year high of $64.53.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, March 20th. The basic materials company reported $0.26 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.31 by ($0.05). Commercial Metals had a net margin of 1.70% and a return on equity of 9.88%. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.88 earnings per share. Commercial Metals’s quarterly revenue was down 5.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently commented on CMC. BNP Paribas cut shares of Commercial Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. BMO Capital Markets lowered their target price on Commercial Metals from $58.00 to $54.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 21st. Jefferies Financial Group cut their price target on Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. The Goldman Sachs Group assumed coverage on Commercial Metals in a research report on Monday, December 2nd. They issued a “buy” rating and a $75.00 price objective for the company. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $54.00 to $49.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 24th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $60.33.

Commercial Metals Company Profile

Commercial Metals Company manufactures, recycles, and fabricates steel and metal products, and related materials and services in the United States, Poland, China, and internationally. It operates through two segments, North America and Europe. The company processes and sells ferrous and nonferrous scrap metals to steel mills and foundries, aluminum sheet and ingot manufacturers, brass and bronze ingot makers, copper refineries and mills, secondary lead smelters, specialty steel mills, high temperature alloy manufacturers, and other consumers.