ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) Shares Purchased by Optas LLC

Optas LLC raised its holdings in ICL Group Ltd (NYSE:ICL) by 26.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 29,210 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after buying an additional 6,022 shares during the quarter. Optas LLC’s holdings in ICL Group were worth $144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of ICL. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. acquired a new position in ICL Group during the third quarter worth approximately $11,967,000. Crossmark Global Holdings Inc. purchased a new position in shares of ICL Group in the 3rd quarter worth $6,689,000. Point72 Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of ICL Group in the 3rd quarter valued at about $1,316,000. Stifel Financial Corp lifted its position in ICL Group by 65.0% during the third quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 591,187 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $2,513,000 after buying an additional 232,842 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Investors Research Corp acquired a new position in shares of ICL Group during the 3rd quarter valued at $604,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages recently issued reports on ICL. Barclays upgraded ICL Group from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the company from $4.00 to $6.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 21st. StockNews.com upgraded ICL Group from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 12th.

ICL Group Price Performance

Shares of ICL stock opened at $6.01 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $5.25 and a 200-day simple moving average of $4.58. The company has a market capitalization of $7.89 billion, a PE ratio of 19.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 6.70 and a beta of 1.23. ICL Group Ltd has a twelve month low of $3.79 and a twelve month high of $6.18. The company has a current ratio of 1.56, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.30.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Monday, November 11th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 company had revenue of $1.75 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.73 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.11 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that ICL Group Ltd will post 0.37 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 18th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 4th were given a $0.0133 dividend. This represents a $0.05 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.89%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 4th. ICL Group’s payout ratio is 48.39%.

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.