CEMEX (NYSE:CX) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Buy”

StockNews.com downgraded shares of CEMEX (NYSE:CX) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report released on Friday morning.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Barclays raised CEMEX from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating and set a $9.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. The Goldman Sachs Group began coverage on CEMEX in a research report on Wednesday, July 10th. They issued a buy rating and a $9.00 price target for the company. Royal Bank of Canada upgraded shares of CEMEX from an underperform rating to a sector perform rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $9.00 to $6.50 in a research note on Tuesday, October 8th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of CEMEX from $8.00 to $7.00 and set an overweight rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, CEMEX presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $8.12.

CEMEX Stock Down 1.9 %

CX stock opened at $6.03 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $8.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.04 and a beta of 1.47. CEMEX has a fifty-two week low of $5.50 and a fifty-two week high of $9.27. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $6.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $6.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.53, a quick ratio of 0.65 and a current ratio of 0.90.

CEMEX (NYSE:CX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 25th. The construction company reported $0.17 EPS for the quarter. CEMEX had a net margin of 1.05% and a return on equity of 1.66%. The business had revenue of $4.49 billion during the quarter. On average, research analysts expect that CEMEX will post 0.79 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

CEMEX Cuts Dividend

The business also recently declared a Variable dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 24th. Investors of record on Friday, September 13th were issued a $0.021 dividend. This represents a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. CEMEX’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 28.57%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On CEMEX

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of CX. Creative Planning lifted its position in shares of CEMEX by 13.7% during the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 197,992 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,208,000 after buying an additional 23,896 shares during the last quarter. Perpetual Ltd raised its stake in CEMEX by 12.6% in the 3rd quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 10,014,640 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $61,089,000 after acquiring an additional 1,117,379 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in CEMEX during the second quarter valued at about $228,000. Dark Forest Capital Management LP purchased a new position in shares of CEMEX in the second quarter worth about $162,000. Finally, Employees Retirement System of Texas raised its position in shares of CEMEX by 13.8% in the second quarter. Employees Retirement System of Texas now owns 183,663 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $1,174,000 after purchasing an additional 22,214 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

About CEMEX

CEMEX, SAB. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, distributes, and sells cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, urbanization solutions, and other construction materials and services worldwide. The company offers gray ordinary portland, white portland, oil-well, and blended cement products; mortar; and standard ready-mix, architectural and decorative, rapid-setting, fiber-reinforced, fluid-fill, roller-compacted, self-consolidating, pervious, and antibacterial, and other concrete products.