Pitcairn Co. Acquires New Shares in ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL)

Pitcairn Co. bought a new position in ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 13,962 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $59,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Altshuler Shaham Ltd boosted its stake in ICL Group by 3.2% in the 2nd quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 44,119,257 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $189,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,360,670 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of ICL Group by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 25,286,822 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $136,043,000 after buying an additional 392,805 shares during the last quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of ICL Group by 2.8% during the 2nd quarter. Meitav Investment House Ltd. now owns 17,215,645 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $73,813,000 after buying an additional 465,031 shares during the last quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd boosted its stake in shares of ICL Group by 2,927,153.2% during the 2nd quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 14,636,266 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $62,766,000 after buying an additional 14,635,766 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in shares of ICL Group during the 3rd quarter worth about $11,967,000. 13.38% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently commented on ICL. StockNews.com upgraded shares of ICL Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $4.50 to $4.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, August 16th.

ICL Group Trading Down 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:ICL opened at $4.56 on Friday. ICL Group Ltd has a 52-week low of $3.79 and a 52-week high of $5.54. The company has a market capitalization of $5.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.44 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $4.22 and a 200 day simple moving average of $4.33. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.56.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last issued its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.08 by $0.03. ICL Group had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 8.31%. The business had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.73 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.11 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that ICL Group Ltd will post 0.35 earnings per share for the current year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 4th will be paid a $0.0133 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.05 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.17%. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 48.39%.

ICL Group Company Profile

ICL Group Ltd, together with its subsidiaries, operates as a specialty minerals and chemicals company worldwide. It operates in four segments: Industrial Products, Potash, Phosphate Solutions, and Growing Solutions. The Industrial Products segment produces bromine out of a solution that is a by-product of the potash production process, as well as bromine-based compounds; produces various grades of potash, salt, magnesium chloride, and magnesia products; and produces and markets phosphorous-based flame retardants and other phosphorus-based products.