ICL Group Ltd. $ICL Shares Acquired by Swiss National Bank

Swiss National Bank boosted its stake in ICL Group Ltd. (NYSE:ICL) by 27.6% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 2,856,439 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after purchasing an additional 617,801 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in ICL Group were worth $14,615,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its position in ICL Group by 4.7% in the 1st quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 19,616,583 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $100,349,000 after buying an additional 877,644 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. raised its holdings in ICL Group by 11.9% during the fourth quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,596,490 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $9,167,000 after purchasing an additional 169,866 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in ICL Group by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,066,383 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $167,132,000 after purchasing an additional 382,780 shares in the last quarter. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD lifted its position in ICL Group by 31.8% in the fourth quarter. Kranot Hishtalmut Le Morim Tichoniim Havera Menahelet LTD now owns 2,084,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $11,960,000 after purchasing an additional 502,628 shares during the period. Finally, Altshuler Shaham Ltd boosted its holdings in ICL Group by 96.6% in the 4th quarter. Altshuler Shaham Ltd now owns 26,349,667 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $151,160,000 after purchasing an additional 12,946,737 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms recently weighed in on ICL. Wall Street Zen upgraded ICL Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of ICL Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of ICL Group from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $7.00.

ICL Group Price Performance

ICL Group stock opened at $5.28 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $6.81 billion, a PE ratio of 26.38 and a beta of 0.97. ICL Group Ltd. has a 52 week low of $4.76 and a 52 week high of $6.97. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $5.54 and its 200 day simple moving average is $5.46. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, May 13th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.10 by $0.01. ICL Group had a net margin of 3.52% and a return on equity of 7.84%. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.92 billion. On average, equities research analysts predict that ICL Group Ltd. will post 0.43 EPS for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 2nd were given a dividend of $0.0535 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 2nd. This represents a $0.21 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.1%. This is an increase from ICL Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. ICL Group’s payout ratio is presently 80.00%.

ICL Group Profile

ICL Group is a global specialty minerals and chemicals company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Established in its current form through the consolidation of Israeli government–owned chemical operations, ICL has evolved into a publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ICL). The company’s origins date back to state-driven mineral extraction in the Negev and the Dead Sea region, and over the decades it has grown through strategic acquisitions, technological innovation and a gradual privatization process completed in the early 2010s.

ICL’s core operations are organized into three principal business areas.