The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE:CF). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Basic Materials company by 1.01% to 24.46 million shares with purchase of 0.25 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 12.49% valued currently at $2.1 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 2.35 million to 13.55 million shares. And T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. has lifted its position by 3.00% or 0.35 million shares – to 12.14 million shares.
With over 2.91 million CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $78.47 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $227.99 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -23.41% and its price on 03/10/23 lost nearly -3.25%. Currently, there are 196.40M common shares owned by the public and among those 195.35M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 21 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for CF have a consensus price objective of $102.26. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $126.00 and a low of $75.00. The average price target is 24.18% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -4.63% over that period. But an upside of 37.72% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $100.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 52 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 23 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 150,668 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 29 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 301,643 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in CF Industries Holdings Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 6.01 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $516.34 million. The company bought an additional 42041.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.07% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 7353.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 4.58 million shares valued at over $393.16 million and representing 2.34% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 10784.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 4.55 million shares at a value of $390.44 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.32% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CF) opened at $80.75, down -$0.36 from a prior closing price of $81.11. However, the script later moved the day high at 81.77, down -3.25%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -8.93% and -21.94% over the past three months. CF shares are trading -7.90% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -15.02% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $79.18 and touched a high of $119.60 over the same period. CF has an average intraday trading volume of 2.76 million shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by -8.06%, -7.76%, and -17.51% respectively.
Institutional ownership of CF Industries Holdings Inc. (NYSE: CF) shares accounts for 97.00% of the company’s 196.40M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 38.14%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 57.30% and 1.72% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $15.88B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.04. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 4.81, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $16.32. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.34% over the week and 3.39% over the month.
Analysts forecast that CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) will achieve an EPS of $4.3 for the current quarter, $3.95 for the next quarter and $13.19 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $3.64 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $4.66. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $3.27 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 286.30%, and -23.75% over the next financial year.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 21 brokerage firm advisors rate CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 8 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 10 of the 21 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the CF, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. HSBC Securities stated their Hold rating for the stock in a research note on February 21, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $104-$90. Scotiabank coverage for the CF Industries Holdings Inc. (CF) stock in a research note released on February 13, 2023 offered a Sector Perform rating with a price target of $100. RBC Capital Mkts on their part issued Outperform rating on October 03, 2022.
