Principal Financial Group Inc. Cuts Stake in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF)

Principal Financial Group Inc. decreased its position in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 237,920 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 8,719 shares during the quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in CF Industries were worth $20,299,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in CF Industries by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,286,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $711,003,000 after acquiring an additional 300,050 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in shares of CF Industries by 0.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 5,567,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $477,668,000 after purchasing an additional 22,392 shares in the last quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 15.1% in the third quarter. Victory Capital Management Inc. now owns 4,188,648 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $359,386,000 after purchasing an additional 549,569 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans lifted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 10.2% in the third quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 1,300,485 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $111,582,000 after purchasing an additional 120,193 shares during the period. Finally, AustralianSuper Pty Ltd boosted its holdings in CF Industries by 8.6% during the fourth quarter. AustralianSuper Pty Ltd now owns 1,187,445 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $101,313,000 after buying an additional 93,560 shares in the last quarter. 93.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. UBS Group reduced their price target on shares of CF Industries from $92.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Scotiabank reduced their price objective on CF Industries from $88.00 to $81.00 and set a “sector underperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday. Piper Sandler boosted their target price on CF Industries from $105.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, January 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut CF Industries from a “neutral” rating to an “underweight” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $82.00 to $75.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of CF Industries from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $84.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, CF Industries currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $91.86.

CF Industries Price Performance

NYSE:CF opened at $77.58 on Tuesday. CF Industries Holdings, Inc. has a 12-month low of $69.13 and a 12-month high of $98.25. The firm has a market cap of $13.50 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.37 and a beta of 0.98. The company’s 50-day moving average is $87.73 and its two-hundred day moving average is $85.65. The company has a current ratio of 3.08, a quick ratio of 2.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, February 19th. The basic materials company reported $1.89 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.40. The firm had revenue of $1.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.50 billion. CF Industries had a net margin of 20.52% and a return on equity of 15.50%. Research analysts expect that CF Industries Holdings, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

CF Industries Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be paid a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.58%. CF Industries’s payout ratio is currently 29.54%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, VP Ashraf K. Malik sold 8,889 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $95.00, for a total transaction of $844,455.00. Following the completion of the sale, the vice president now directly owns 15,871 shares in the company, valued at $1,507,745. This represents a 35.90 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Susan L. Menzel sold 1,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, January 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $96.00, for a total value of $144,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 92,486 shares in the company, valued at $8,878,656. This trade represents a 1.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 15,389 shares of company stock worth $1,455,965. 0.42% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

CF Industries Company Profile

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.