JPMorgan Chase & Co. Trims Holdings in ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL)

JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered its stake in shares of ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) by 46.0% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,526,974 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 1,299,304 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s holdings in ICL Group were worth $6,490,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. purchased a new stake in ICL Group during the third quarter worth about $11,967,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. acquired a new position in shares of ICL Group in the third quarter valued at approximately $6,689,000. Altshuler Shaham Ltd grew its holdings in shares of ICL Group by 3.2% in the second quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 44,119,257 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $189,200,000 after purchasing an additional 1,360,670 shares in the last quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. purchased a new stake in ICL Group during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $1,316,000. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp lifted its holdings in ICL Group by 65.0% during the 3rd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 591,187 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,513,000 after buying an additional 232,842 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Separately, StockNews.com upgraded shares of ICL Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, November 12th.

ICL Group Price Performance

Shares of NYSE ICL opened at $5.74 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30, a current ratio of 1.56 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $7.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.97 and a beta of 1.22. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $4.84 and its two-hundred day moving average is $4.43. ICL Group Ltd has a 1-year low of $3.79 and a 1-year high of $5.79.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last released its earnings results on Monday, November 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.08 by $0.03. ICL Group had a net margin of 5.83% and a return on equity of 8.31%. The firm had revenue of $1.75 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.11 earnings per share. Analysts forecast that ICL Group Ltd will post 0.35 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a dividend of $0.0133 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. This represents a $0.05 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.93%. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 45.16%.

ICL Group 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.