Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) Lowered to Hold Rating by Zacks Research

Zacks Research cut shares of Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Zacks reports.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently weighed in on WS. Weiss Ratings cut Worthington Steel from a “hold (c)” rating to a “hold (c-)” rating in a research note on Monday, August 3rd. KeyCorp reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Worthington Steel in a research report on Monday, June 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen cut Worthington Steel from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Worthington Steel currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $46.00.

Worthington Steel Stock Performance

NYSE:WS opened at $33.23 on Thursday. Worthington Steel has a twelve month low of $27.22 and a twelve month high of $49.17. The company has a market cap of $1.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.91 and a beta of 2.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.46, a quick ratio of 0.92 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $35.50 and its 200-day moving average price is $36.30.

Worthington Steel (NYSE:WS) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 25th. The company reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.73 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $929.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $992.00 million. Worthington Steel had a return on equity of 8.87% and a net margin of 0.50%.The business’s revenue was up 11.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.05 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Worthington Steel will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Worthington Steel Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 29th. Investors of record on Tuesday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.9%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, September 15th. Worthington Steel’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 46.04%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Worthington Steel

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Worthington Steel by 2.8% during the first quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,520,318 shares of the company’s stock worth $76,485,000 after buying an additional 68,775 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management lifted its position in Worthington Steel by 563.7% during the 4th quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 365,672 shares of the company’s stock worth $12,660,000 after acquiring an additional 310,572 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp acquired a new stake in Worthington Steel during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $11,617,000. Windsor Advisory Group LLC grew its stake in shares of Worthington Steel by 32.9% in the 1st quarter. Windsor Advisory Group LLC now owns 275,885 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,373,000 after purchasing an additional 68,330 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Worthington Steel by 24.3% in the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 238,338 shares of the company’s stock valued at $8,251,000 after purchasing an additional 46,665 shares during the period. 45.41% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Worthington Steel Company Profile

Worthington Steel, Inc is a steel processing company that produces value-added flat-rolled steel products for manufacturers and industrial customers. Its operations include steel slitting, cold rolling, coating, electrical steel processing and other specialized treatments designed to meet customers’ product and performance requirements.

The company supplies products and services to a range of end markets, including automotive, electrical infrastructure, construction, energy, industrial equipment and consumer products.