Short Interest in CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF) Increases By 10.4%

CF Industries Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:CF – Get Rating) was the target of a significant increase in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 5,220,000 shares, an increase of 10.4% from the February 13th total of 4,730,000 shares. Currently, 2.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 2,690,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.9 days.

Institutional Trading of CF Industries

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CF. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 101.0% during the fourth quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 4,014,385 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $342,026,000 after purchasing an additional 2,017,325 shares during the period. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of CF Industries during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $159,602,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 83.1% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,971,287 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $167,954,000 after purchasing an additional 894,857 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 331.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 1,155,650 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $99,074,000 after purchasing an additional 888,100 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of CF Industries by 78.1% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,821,699 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $154,827,000 after purchasing an additional 799,020 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.94% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on CF shares. Mizuho lowered their price target on shares of CF Industries from $105.00 to $101.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 17th. HSBC downgraded shares of CF Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $104.00 to $90.00 in a report on Tuesday, February 21st. Scotiabank downgraded shares of CF Industries from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $118.00 to $100.00 in a report on Monday, February 13th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of CF Industries from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 17th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of CF Industries from $130.00 to $125.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, February 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $106.58.

CF Industries Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NYSE CF opened at $74.61 on Wednesday. CF Industries has a one year low of $74.01 and a one year high of $119.60. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.38, a current ratio of 3.69 and a quick ratio of 3.22. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $84.63 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $95.54. The stock has a market capitalization of $14.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 4.57, a PEG ratio of 1.32 and a beta of 1.05.

CF Industries (NYSE:CF – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The basic materials company reported $4.35 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.13 by $0.22. CF Industries had a net margin of 29.91% and a return on equity of 48.59%. The business had revenue of $2.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.80 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $3.71 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 2.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that CF Industries will post 9.94 EPS for the current fiscal year.

CF Industries Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, February 28th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, February 15th were paid a dividend of $0.40 per share. This represents a $1.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, February 14th. CF Industries’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 9.80%.

CF Industries Company Profile

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CF Industries Holdings, Inc engages in the manufacture and distribution of nitrogen fertilizer. The firm owns and operates nitrogen plants and serves agricultural and industrial customers through its distribution system. It operates through following segments: Ammonia, Granular Urea, UAN, AN, and Other.