Teacher Retirement System of Texas Purchases Shares of 260,168 CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF)

Teacher Retirement System of Texas purchased a new stake in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund purchased 260,168 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,198,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of CF. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division acquired a new stake in shares of CF Industries in the 4th quarter valued at $74,000. National Pension Service boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 2,848.4% in the 4th quarter. National Pension Service now owns 290,384 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $24,776,000 after purchasing an additional 280,535 shares in the last quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CF Industries in the 3rd quarter valued at $3,149,000. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of CF Industries in the 4th quarter valued at $51,000. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 4.0% in the 4th quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,792,339 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $494,202,000 after purchasing an additional 225,109 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 93.06% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.00, for a total transaction of $144,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 92,486 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,878,656. This represents a 1.60 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, VP Ashraf K. Malik sold 8,889 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total value of $844,455.00. Following the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,871 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,507,745. The trade was a 35.90 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,889 shares of company stock valued at $1,130,955 in the last ninety days. 0.42% of the stock is owned by insiders.

CF Industries Stock Performance

CF Industries stock opened at $76.88 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has a 1 year low of $69.13 and a 1 year high of $98.25. The company has a market cap of $13.03 billion, a PE ratio of 11.36, a PEG ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.99. The company’s 50-day moving average is $84.43 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.11.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 15.50%. The company had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.50 billion. Equities analysts anticipate that CF Industries Holdings, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

CF Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 14th were paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.60%. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.54%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on CF shares. Oppenheimer reduced their target price on shares of CF Industries from $114.00 to $111.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $100.00 to $95.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, March 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. downgraded shares of CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of CF Industries from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price target on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 24th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $89.86.

About CF Industries

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.