CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.50

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, January 30th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.50 per share by the basic materials company on Friday, February 28th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%.

CF Industries has raised its dividend payment by an average of 18.6% annually over the last three years. CF Industries has a payout ratio of 36.8% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect CF Industries to earn $6.15 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.00 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.5%.

CF Industries Price Performance

CF traded down $0.30 during trading on Thursday, reaching $92.22. The stock had a trading volume of 1,464,645 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,063,294. The firm has a market capitalization of $16.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.71 and a beta of 0.98. The company has a quick ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 2.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38. CF Industries has a 1-year low of $69.13 and a 1-year high of $98.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $89.32 and a two-hundred day moving average of $84.13.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The basic materials company reported $1.55 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.05 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $1.37 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.28 billion. CF Industries had a return on equity of 14.57% and a net margin of 19.45%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.85 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that CF Industries will post 6.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on CF shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. UBS Group increased their price objective on CF Industries from $91.00 to $92.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Piper Sandler increased their price objective on CF Industries from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday. Barclays downgraded CF Industries from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $96.00 to $100.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underperform” rating and set a $83.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, October 16th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $92.43.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Bert A. Frost sold 3,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, November 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $88.00, for a total value of $264,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,155 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,077,640. This trade represents a 2.83 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 92,486 shares in the company, valued at $8,878,656. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,389 shares of company stock valued at $2,355,425 in the last 90 days. 0.42% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.