Fidelity Management & Research Co recently announced the acquisition of new stake in GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE:EAF). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 12.62% to 31.18 million shares with purchase of 3.49 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 12.15% valued currently at $176.15 million. In addition, Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co raised its holdings by 4.4 million to 15.01 million shares. And BlackRock Fund Advisors has lifted its position by 4.57% or 0.5 million shares – to 11.51 million shares.
With over 2.16 million GrafTech International Ltd. (EAF) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $5.07 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $10.95 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -14.36% and its price on 03/13/23 lost nearly -4.16%. Currently, there are 256.88M common shares owned by the public and among those 256.21M 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: 3 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for EAF have a consensus price objective of $5.67. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $6.00 and a low of $5.00. The average price target is 15.64% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -1.4% over that period. But an upside of 15.5% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $6.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 0 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 0 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 0 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 0 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 0 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in GrafTech International Ltd. are Fidelity Low Priced Stock Fund, Government Pension Fund – Global, and Vanguard Total Stock Market Index. Fidelity Low Priced Stock Fund owns 17.21 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $97.26 million. The company bought an additional 1.1 million shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 6.71% of the shares outstanding. Government Pension Fund – Global sold 513.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 8.29 million shares valued at over $46.84 million and representing 3.23% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index bought 92288.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 5.91 million shares at a value of $33.38 million. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index now owns shares totaling to 2.30% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: EAF) opened at $5.18, down -$0.11 from a prior closing price of $5.29. However, the script later moved the day high at 5.26, down -4.16%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -8.98% and -2.31% over the past three months. EAF shares are trading 6.51% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -48.58% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $4.07 and touched a high of $10.63 over the same period. EAF has an average intraday trading volume of 1.59 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 -8.80%, -9.32%, and -14.87% respectively.
Institutional ownership of GrafTech International Ltd. (NYSE: EAF) shares accounts for 96.90% of the company’s 256.88M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 25.11%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 45.33% and 23.65% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $1.35B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 1.39. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 3.43, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $1.48. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 3.47% over the week and 3.64% over the month.
Analysts forecast that GrafTech International Ltd. (EAF) will achieve an EPS of -$0.01 for the current quarter, $0.18 for the next quarter and $0.98 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is -$0.03 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $0.01. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $0.48 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 1.50%, and 123.02% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of -5.87% over the next five years, compared to 33.30% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 3 brokerage firm advisors rate GrafTech International Ltd. (EAF) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.80. Specifically, 0 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 3 of the 3 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the EAF, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. RBC Capital Mkts stated their Sector Perform rating for the stock in a research note on July 13, 2022, with the firm’s price target at $10-$7. Citigroup coverage for the GrafTech International Ltd. (EAF) stock in a research note released on June 07, 2022 offered a Neutral rating with a price target of $10. JP Morgan was of a view on June 16, 2021 that the stock is Overweight, while RBC Capital Mkts gave the stock Outperform rating on May 13, 2021, issuing a price target of $12- $16. Citigroup on their part issued Buy rating on February 08, 2021.
