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

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, March 19th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Monday, March 31st will be paid 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 1.54%.

Commercial Metals has raised its dividend by an average of 11.5% per year over the last three years. Commercial Metals has a dividend payout ratio of 16.1% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

Shares of CMC stock opened at $46.82 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.29, a current ratio of 2.76 and a quick ratio of 1.94. Commercial Metals has a fifty-two week low of $42.62 and a fifty-two week high of $64.53. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $48.88 and its two-hundred day moving average is $52.81. The firm has a market cap of $5.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.18, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.17.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last issued its earnings results on Monday, January 6th. The basic materials company reported $0.78 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.78. Commercial Metals had a return on equity of 9.88% and a net margin of 1.70%. The company had revenue of $1.91 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.85 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.49 EPS. The business’s revenue was down 4.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts predict that Commercial Metals will post 3.09 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on CMC shares. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Commercial Metals from $62.00 to $58.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 3rd. UBS Group upgraded shares of Commercial Metals from a “sell” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $56.00 to $54.00 in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $56.00 to $53.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $65.00 to $62.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 6th. Finally, BNP Paribas lowered shares of Commercial Metals from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $61.83.

About Commercial Metals

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.