Chemours (NYSE:CC) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

The Chemours Company (NYSE:CC)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on the stock from $34.00 to $27.00. The stock had previously closed at $17.48, but opened at $16.72. BMO Capital Markets currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Chemours shares last traded at $17.16, with a volume of 145,724 shares traded.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on CC. Barclays lifted their price objective on Chemours from $21.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 5th. Mizuho reduced their price target on Chemours from $22.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $25.00 price objective on shares of Chemours in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on shares of Chemours from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 13th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group decreased their target price on shares of Chemours from $24.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Chemours presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $23.56.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Chemours

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in CC. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Chemours by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 18,142,202 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $368,650,000 after purchasing an additional 618,361 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of Chemours by 0.6% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 15,223,961 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $257,285,000 after buying an additional 94,885 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in shares of Chemours by 23.8% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 4,373,172 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $73,907,000 after buying an additional 839,849 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Chemours by 44.6% in the 4th quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 2,507,262 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $42,373,000 after buying an additional 773,537 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in Chemours by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,491,748 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $50,646,000 after acquiring an additional 28,803 shares during the period. 76.26% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Chemours Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $18.13 and its 200-day simple moving average is $18.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.70, a current ratio of 1.68 and a quick ratio of 0.92. The company has a market capitalization of $2.51 billion, a PE ratio of 29.42 and a beta of 1.81.

Chemours (NYSE:CC) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 18th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $1.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.37 billion. Chemours had a net margin of 1.51% and a return on equity of 26.54%. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Chemours Company will post 2.06 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Chemours Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Stockholders of record on Friday, February 28th will be given a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.96%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 28th. Chemours’s dividend payout ratio is presently 175.44%.

About Chemours

The Chemours Company provides performance chemicals in North America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America. It operates through three segments: Titanium Technologies, Thermal & Specialized Solutions, and Advanced Performance Materials. The Titanium Technologies segment provides TiO2 pigment under the Ti-Pure brand for delivering whiteness, brightness, opacity, durability, efficiency, and protection in various of applications, such as architectural and industrial coatings, flexible and rigid plastic packaging, polyvinylchloride, laminate papers used for furniture and building materials, coated paper, and coated paperboard used for packaging.