Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio Buys New Shares in Methanex Corporation $MEOH

Public Employees Retirement System of Ohio bought a new position in shares of Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund bought 109,161 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,040,000.

A number of other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. NewEdge Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Methanex during the second quarter valued at about $50,000. Clearstead Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Methanex by 336.2% in the 4th quarter. Clearstead Advisors LLC now owns 1,784 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $71,000 after buying an additional 1,375 shares during the period. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust increased its position in Methanex by 61.0% in the 4th quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust now owns 2,143 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $85,000 after buying an additional 812 shares in the last quarter. State of Wyoming bought a new stake in Methanex in the 2nd quarter valued at about $153,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp raised its stake in Methanex by 1,087.3% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 3,823 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 3,501 shares during the period. 73.49% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on MEOH. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce upgraded Methanex from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $69.00 to $71.00 in a report on Monday, July 20th. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Methanex from $70.00 to $65.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, July 1st. Zacks Research cut Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. Finally, National Bank Financial set a $70.00 price target on shares of Methanex and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Methanex has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.56.

Methanex Stock Performance

NASDAQ MEOH opened at $60.57 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $4.69 billion, a PE ratio of 58.81 and a beta of 0.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a current ratio of 2.07. Methanex Corporation has a 52-week low of $32.00 and a 52-week high of $66.75. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $53.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $55.93.

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 28th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.87 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by ($0.13). Methanex had a net margin of 2.07% and a return on equity of 11.35%. The company had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.97 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Methanex Corporation will post 8.6 EPS for the current year.

Methanex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.185 per share. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 16th. Methanex’s dividend payout ratio is 71.84%.

About Methanex

Methanex Corporation is a Vancouver, Canada–based company and one of the world’s largest producers and suppliers of methanol. The company manufactures methanol, a key feedstock for a wide range of chemical products and industrial applications. Methanex markets its product to customers in energy, plastics, paints and coatings, and various chemical sectors, positioning the company as a critical link in the global supply chain for basic chemicals.

The company’s core product, methanol, serves as a building block for downstream chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetic acid and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).