StockNews.com Initiates Coverage on Summit Materials (NYSE:SUM)

Stock analysts at StockNews.com assumed coverage on shares of Summit Materials (NYSE:SUM) in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday. The brokerage set a “sell” rating on the construction company’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also commented on SUM. Citigroup reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $52.50 price target (down from $55.00) on shares of Summit Materials in a report on Tuesday, November 26th. Wolfe Research reissued a “peer perform” rating on shares of Summit Materials in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. Jefferies Financial Group cut Summit Materials from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $58.00 to $52.50 in a research report on Monday, December 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $52.50 price objective (up previously from $43.00) on shares of Summit Materials in a research report on Monday, November 25th. Finally, Longbow Research reissued a “neutral” rating on shares of Summit Materials in a research report on Tuesday, November 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $50.54.

Summit Materials Stock Up 0.1 %

SUM stock opened at $52.08 on Tuesday. Summit Materials has a twelve month low of $34.38 and a twelve month high of $53.49. The company has a quick ratio of 2.48, a current ratio of 3.10 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.62. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $50.51 and its 200-day moving average is $43.17. The firm has a market capitalization of $9.15 billion, a PE ratio of 63.51 and a beta of 1.14.

Summit Materials (NYSE:SUM) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The construction company reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.70 by $0.05. Summit Materials had a return on equity of 6.90% and a net margin of 3.92%. The company had revenue of $1.11 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.17 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.81 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 49.9% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Summit Materials will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at Summit Materials

In related news, insider Christopher Burke Gaskill sold 1,536 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, December 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $50.91, for a total transaction of $78,197.76. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 40,221 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,047,651.11. The trade was a 3.68 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.55% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Summit Materials

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Summit Materials during the 3rd quarter valued at $7,359,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in Summit Materials by 1.8% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 5,289,410 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $206,445,000 after acquiring an additional 94,694 shares during the last quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd increased its stake in Summit Materials by 355.8% in the 3rd quarter. Ausbil Investment Management Ltd now owns 23,963 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $935,000 after acquiring an additional 18,706 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Summit Materials by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 287,733 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $11,230,000 after acquiring an additional 10,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its stake in Summit Materials by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 731,995 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $28,570,000 after acquiring an additional 27,225 shares during the last quarter.

About Summit Materials

Summit Materials, Inc is a vertically integrated construction materials company, which engages in manufacturing construction materials and related downstream products. It operates through the following segments: West, East, and Cement. The West segment includes operations in Texas, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Arkansas and British Columbia, Canada.