Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) Upgraded at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on NX. Benchmark lowered their target price on Quanex Building Products from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, December 15th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Quanex Building Products in a report on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Zacks Research raised Quanex Building Products from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, November 10th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $28.00.

Quanex Building Products Trading Up 1.1%

NX opened at $17.73 on Friday. Quanex Building Products has a 1-year low of $11.04 and a 1-year high of $24.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $809.55 million, a PE ratio of -3.23, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.04, a quick ratio of 1.14 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $14.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.48.

Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 11th. The construction company reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.50 by $0.33. The business had revenue of $489.85 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $472.62 million. Quanex Building Products had a negative net margin of 13.65% and a positive return on equity of 12.46%. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.61 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Quanex Building Products will post 2.18 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Quanex Building Products Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Monday, December 15th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, December 15th. Quanex Building Products’s dividend payout ratio is presently -5.83%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Quanex Building Products news, insider Teleios Capital Partners Gmbh sold 119,485 shares of Quanex Building Products stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $15.94, for a total value of $1,904,590.90. Following the transaction, the insider owned 4,421,879 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $70,484,751.26. The trade was a 2.63% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 2.15% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Quanex Building Products

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P grew its position in shares of Quanex Building Products by 32.9% in the 2nd quarter. Loomis Sayles & Co. L P now owns 548,831 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $10,373,000 after acquiring an additional 135,875 shares during the period. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Quanex Building Products by 25.0% in the 2nd quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 20,060 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $379,000 after purchasing an additional 4,009 shares during the period. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd acquired a new stake in Quanex Building Products in the 2nd quarter valued at about $455,000. Systematic Financial Management LP grew its holdings in Quanex Building Products by 6.7% during the second quarter. Systematic Financial Management LP now owns 1,283,079 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $24,250,000 after purchasing an additional 80,574 shares during the period. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Quanex Building Products by 62.0% during the second quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 4,242 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $80,000 after buying an additional 1,624 shares during the last quarter. 97.48% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Quanex Building Products Company Profile

Quanex Building Products Corporation engages in the design, manufacture and distribution of components for the window, door and building products industries in North America. The company operates through two primary segments: Window Products and Door & Building Products. Its Window Products segment supplies vinyl window profiles and related accessories, while its Door & Building Products segment offers engineered door skins, panels, siding products, specialty moldings and other exterior building components.

Within its Window Products segment, Quanex produces extrusion profiles used by window fabricators to assemble vinyl casement, double-hung, slider and picture windows.