ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) Short Interest Update

ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) saw a large decline in short interest during the month of January. As of January 15th, there was short interest totalling 1,590,000 shares, a decline of 22.8% from the December 31st total of 2,060,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 797,600 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.0 days. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Institutional Trading of ICL Group

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ICL Group during the third quarter worth $6,689,000. Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 65.0% in the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 591,187 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,513,000 after buying an additional 232,842 shares during the last quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of ICL Group in the third quarter valued at about $56,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 9.9% in the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 1,335,527 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $5,676,000 after buying an additional 120,169 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new position in ICL Group during the third quarter worth about $11,967,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms recently issued reports on ICL. StockNews.com upgraded ICL Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays upgraded ICL Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $4.00 to $6.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st.

ICL Group Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of ICL Group stock opened at $5.90 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $7.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.02, a P/E/G ratio of 6.73 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $5.20 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.56. ICL Group has a 1-year low of $3.79 and a 1-year high of $6.18. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 0.91.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. ICL Group had a return on equity of 8.31% and a net margin of 5.83%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.11 EPS. Analysts predict that ICL Group will post 0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.0133 per share. This represents a $0.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.90%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 4th. ICL Group’s payout ratio is presently 48.39%.

About ICL Group

ICL Group Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty minerals and chemicals company worldwide. It operates in four segments: Industrial Products, Potash, Phosphate Solutions, and Growing Solutions. The Industrial Products segment produces bromine out of a solution that is a by-product of the potash production process, as well as bromine-based compounds; produces various grades of potash, salt, magnesium chloride, and magnesia products; and produces and markets phosphorous-based flame retardants and other phosphorus-based products.