Earnest Partners LLC Purchases 59,674 Shares of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF)

Earnest Partners LLC increased its position in shares of CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) by 2.8% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 2,193,528 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 59,674 shares during the period. Earnest Partners LLC’s holdings in CF Industries were worth $162,584,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of CF. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in CF Industries by 401.2% during the 2nd quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,639,079 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $269,729,000 after buying an additional 2,912,942 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners boosted its position in CF Industries by 37.5% during the first quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,063,854 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $254,920,000 after purchasing an additional 835,557 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in CF Industries by 68.8% in the fourth quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 1,546,331 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $122,933,000 after purchasing an additional 630,264 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of CF Industries by 16.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 2,928,039 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $232,779,000 after purchasing an additional 414,785 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its stake in shares of CF Industries by 137.0% during the 1st quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 580,518 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $48,305,000 after purchasing an additional 335,624 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 93.06% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms recently weighed in on CF. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of CF Industries from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, August 9th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of CF Industries from $76.00 to $83.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, August 9th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of CF Industries from $88.00 to $92.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on CF Industries from $85.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Barclays raised CF Industries from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $80.00 to $90.00 in a research report on Friday, August 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $87.73.

CF Industries Stock Performance

NYSE:CF opened at $83.84 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 4.70, a quick ratio of 4.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has a 1-year low of $69.13 and a 1-year high of $87.90. The stock has a market cap of $15.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.93, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 0.95. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $78.49 and a 200 day simple moving average of $77.98.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 7th. The basic materials company reported $2.30 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.80 by $0.50. The firm had revenue of $1.57 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.52 billion. CF Industries had a return on equity of 12.96% and a net margin of 17.87%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.70 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that CF Industries Holdings, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, August 30th. Investors of record on Thursday, August 15th were paid a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.39%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, August 15th. CF Industries’s payout ratio is 33.22%.

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.