CF Industries (NYSE:CF) to Buyback $2.00 billion in Stock

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, May 7th, RTT News reports. The company plans to buyback $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the basic materials company to reacquire up to 14.7% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on shares of CF Industries from $100.00 to $90.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Friday, January 24th. Oppenheimer lowered CF Industries from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on CF Industries in a research report on Thursday, March 13th. They issued a “neutral” rating and a $86.00 price objective for the company. Finally, BNP Paribas upgraded shares of CF Industries to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $89.29.

CF Industries Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE CF opened at $80.52 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $76.25 and a 200 day moving average price of $83.26. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a current ratio of 3.08. The stock has a market cap of $13.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.89, a P/E/G ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.94. CF Industries has a 52-week low of $67.34 and a 52-week high of $98.25.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The basic materials company reported $1.85 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.53 by $0.32. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 15.50%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.03 earnings per share. Analysts expect that CF Industries will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, May 30th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 15th will be given a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.48%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, May 15th. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

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.