Stock Buyback Program Declared by Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) Board of Directors

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) announced that its board has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 5th, RTT News reports. The company plans to repurchase $600.00 million in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the basic materials company to repurchase up to 7.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Commercial Metals Trading Up 4.3%

NYSE:CMC traded up $3.15 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $75.78. 1,587,907 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,092,918. Commercial Metals has a fifty-two week low of $51.52 and a fifty-two week high of $84.87. The company has a current ratio of 2.33, a quick ratio of 1.54 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.73. The firm has a market capitalization of $8.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.27, a PEG ratio of 0.42 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $69.88 and a 200-day simple moving average of $70.29.

Commercial Metals (NYSE:CMC) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The basic materials company reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $2.48 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $2.40 billion. Commercial Metals had a net margin of 6.72% and a return on equity of 15.69%. The company’s revenue was up 22.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.74 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Commercial Metals will post 6.64 earnings per share for the current year.

Commercial Metals Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Monday, July 6th were issued a $0.20 dividend. This represents a $0.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, July 6th. Commercial Metals’s dividend payout ratio is presently 15.07%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CMC has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. BNP Paribas Exane upgraded shares of Commercial Metals from a “neutral” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $75.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Wednesday, July 8th. Bank of America cut their target price on shares of Commercial Metals from $84.00 to $78.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 9th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of Commercial Metals from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, July 13th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of Commercial Metals from $85.00 to $75.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, July 7th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised Commercial Metals from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Thursday, July 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $79.45.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Peter R. Matt bought 8,230 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $61.30 per share, with a total value of $504,499.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 181,522 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,127,298.60. This trade represents a 4.75% increase in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.62% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Commercial Metals Company Profile

Commercial Metals Company (NYSE: CMC) is a leading global steel and metal recycler, manufacturer and fabricator based in Irving, Texas. The company operates an integrated network of scrap recycling facilities, electric arc furnace steel mills, metal fabrication plants and distribution centers. Through these operations, Commercial Metals collects and processes ferrous scrap to produce finished steel products and provides recycled metal to a variety of end markets.

In its steelmaking segment, CMC uses electric arc furnace technology to transform recycled scrap into reinforcing bar (rebar), merchant bar, coil and structural products.