AQR Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Core & Main, Inc. (NYSE:CNM)

AQR Capital Management LLC lowered its stake in Core & Main, Inc. (NYSE:CNM) by 42.6% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 244,379 shares of the company’s stock after selling 181,631 shares during the quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Core & Main were worth $11,960,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. ELCO Management Co. LLC lifted its position in Core & Main by 76.1% in the second quarter. ELCO Management Co. LLC now owns 17,351 shares of the company’s stock worth $849,000 after buying an additional 7,500 shares during the last quarter. Interval Partners LP raised its stake in shares of Core & Main by 7.2% in the second quarter. Interval Partners LP now owns 153,973 shares of the company’s stock valued at $7,535,000 after acquiring an additional 10,396 shares during the period. Xponance Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Core & Main by 40.1% in the 2nd quarter. Xponance Inc. now owns 28,645 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,402,000 after acquiring an additional 8,206 shares during the last quarter. Anomaly Capital Management LP boosted its stake in shares of Core & Main by 35.9% during the 2nd quarter. Anomaly Capital Management LP now owns 3,608,523 shares of the company’s stock worth $176,601,000 after purchasing an additional 953,489 shares during the period. Finally, Fernbridge Capital Management LP bought a new position in Core & Main during the 2nd quarter valued at about $40,447,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 94.19% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on CNM. Wells Fargo & Company initiated coverage on Core & Main in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set an “overweight” rating and a $52.00 target price for the company. Bank of America dropped their price objective on Core & Main from $38.00 to $34.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Core & Main from $57.00 to $50.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 6th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of Core & Main from $64.00 to $52.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of Core & Main from $54.00 to $52.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $49.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director James G. Castellano sold 12,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $52.22, for a total value of $652,750.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,769 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $614,577.18. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Company insiders own 3.49% of the company’s stock.

Core & Main Stock Down 1.2 %

Shares of Core & Main stock opened at $43.87 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.40, a current ratio of 2.29 and a quick ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $8.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.50, a PEG ratio of 2.87 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $46.96 and its two-hundred day moving average is $51.97. Core & Main, Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.98 and a 1 year high of $62.15.

Core & Main (NYSE:CNM) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The company reported $0.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74 by ($0.13). The business had revenue of $1.96 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.05 billion. Core & Main had a net margin of 5.58% and a return on equity of 21.91%. Core & Main’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.66 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that Core & Main, Inc. will post 2.1 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Core & Main announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, June 12th that permits the company to buyback $500.00 million in shares. This buyback authorization permits the company to purchase up to 6.4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Core & Main Profile

Core & Main, Inc distributes water, wastewater, storm drainage, and fire protection products and related services to municipalities, private water companies, and professional contractors in the municipal, non-residential, and residential end markets in the United States. Its products portfolio include pipes, valves, hydrants, fittings, and other products and services; storm drainage products, such as corrugated piping systems, retention basins, inline drains, manholes, grates, geosynthetics, erosion control, and other related products; fire protection products, including fire protection pipes, and sprinkler heads and devices, as well as fabrication services; and meter products, such as smart meter products, meter sets, meter accessories, installation, software, and other services.