ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) Trading Down 3.7% – Time to Sell?

ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) fell 3.7% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $5.87 and last traded at $5.86. 196,302 shares were traded during mid-day trading, a decline of 75% from the average session volume of 772,056 shares. The stock had previously closed at $6.08.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on ICL. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $6.00 to $6.50 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. StockNews.com lowered shares of ICL Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 5th.

ICL Group Trading Down 1.9 %

The stock has a market cap of $7.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 7.10 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 1.56. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $5.96 and its 200-day simple moving average is $4.97.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The basic materials company reported $0.08 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.08. ICL Group had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 8.31%. The business had revenue of $1.60 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. Equities research analysts expect that ICL Group Ltd will post 0.37 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a $0.0403 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $0.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.70%. This is an increase from ICL Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.01. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 50.00%.

Institutional Trading of ICL Group

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of ICL. Mackenzie Financial Corp raised its stake in shares of ICL Group by 15.2% during the 4th quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 49,833 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $246,000 after purchasing an additional 6,561 shares during the period. Two Sigma Investments LP raised its stake in ICL Group by 32.1% in the 4th quarter. Two Sigma Investments LP now owns 77,900 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $385,000 after acquiring an additional 18,914 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in ICL Group by 11.2% in the 4th quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 63,433 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $313,000 after acquiring an additional 6,379 shares during the period. Quantinno Capital Management LP raised its stake in ICL Group by 258.6% in the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 250,589 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,238,000 after acquiring an additional 180,713 shares during the period. Finally, Nuveen Asset Management LLC raised its stake in ICL Group by 20.2% in the 4th quarter. Nuveen Asset Management LLC now owns 1,412,613 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $6,978,000 after acquiring an additional 237,704 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

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.