StockNews.com Upgrades ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) to “Strong-Buy”

StockNews.com upgraded shares of ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research report released on Friday morning.

Separately, Barclays decreased their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a report on Friday, August 16th.

ICL Group Price Performance

ICL opened at $3.81 on Friday. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $4.23 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.56. The firm has a market cap of $5.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.30, a PEG ratio of 5.36 and a beta of 1.23. ICL Group has a twelve month low of $3.79 and a twelve month high of $5.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.62, a quick ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.31.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 14th. The basic materials company reported $0.10 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.09 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. ICL Group had a net margin of 6.08% and a return on equity of 8.41%. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.13 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that ICL Group will post 0.36 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 4th were given a $0.037 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, September 4th. This represents a $0.15 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.88%. ICL Group’s payout ratio is currently 37.84%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Y.D. More Investments Ltd raised its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 2,927,153.2% in the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 14,636,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $62,766,000 after purchasing an additional 14,635,766 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new stake in ICL Group in the fourth quarter worth approximately $36,042,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its position in ICL Group by 3.2% in the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 44,119,257 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $189,200,000 after acquiring an additional 1,360,670 shares in the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. grew its position in ICL Group by 2.8% in the second quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 17,215,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $73,813,000 after acquiring an additional 465,031 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 1.7% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 24,894,017 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $124,719,000 after buying an additional 419,241 shares during the period. 13.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.