CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) Short Interest Up 14.2% in September

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) saw a large increase in short interest in September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 3,950,000 shares, an increase of 14.2% from the August 31st total of 3,460,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,730,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.3 days. Approximately 2.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CF has been the topic of several recent research reports. Scotiabank boosted their target price on CF Industries from $80.00 to $88.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on CF Industries from $80.00 to $85.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on CF Industries from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of CF Industries from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of CF Industries from $76.00 to $83.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CF Industries presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $87.73.

CF Industries Stock Performance

Shares of CF stock opened at $85.80 on Tuesday. CF Industries has a one year low of $69.13 and a one year high of $87.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a quick ratio of 4.19 and a current ratio of 4.70. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $79.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $77.95. The firm has a market cap of $15.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.25, a P/E/G ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.95.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The basic materials company reported $2.30 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.80 by $0.50. The business had revenue of $1.57 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.52 billion. CF Industries had a return on equity of 12.96% and a net margin of 17.87%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $2.70 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts predict that CF Industries will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.33%. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 33.22%.

Institutional Trading of CF Industries

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CF. Corient Private Wealth LLC boosted its holdings in CF Industries by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Corient Private Wealth LLC now owns 16,156 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,284,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the period. US Bancorp DE boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. US Bancorp DE now owns 11,396 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $906,000 after buying an additional 188 shares during the period. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC grew its position in shares of CF Industries by 13.2% during the fourth quarter. Steward Partners Investment Advisory LLC now owns 9,150 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $727,000 after buying an additional 1,068 shares in the last quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC increased its stake in shares of CF Industries by 32,820.0% during the fourth quarter. TFO Wealth Partners LLC now owns 1,646 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $131,000 after buying an additional 1,641 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of Nova Scotia raised its holdings in CF Industries by 440.4% in the fourth quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 223,959 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $17,804,000 after acquiring an additional 182,519 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.06% of the company’s stock.

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.