Lazard Asset Management LLC Sells 12,552,892 Shares of Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. $CX

Lazard Asset Management LLC cut its holdings in Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:CX) by 32.4% during the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 26,183,191 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 12,552,892 shares during the quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Cemex were worth $181,448,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the business. Dodge & Cox boosted its holdings in Cemex by 35.1% in the 2nd quarter. Dodge & Cox now owns 95,023,835 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $658,515,000 after purchasing an additional 24,703,035 shares during the period. Brandes Investment Partners LP raised its position in shares of Cemex by 7.7% in the second quarter. Brandes Investment Partners LP now owns 32,648,163 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $226,252,000 after buying an additional 2,337,817 shares in the last quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd boosted its stake in shares of Cemex by 115.6% in the first quarter. Orbis Allan Gray Ltd now owns 13,831,102 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $77,592,000 after buying an additional 7,416,743 shares during the period. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Cemex by 58.8% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 7,187,143 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $40,320,000 after buying an additional 2,661,030 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its position in Cemex by 5.2% during the second quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 6,727,119 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $46,619,000 after buying an additional 332,914 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

CX has been the subject of several analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada lifted their price objective on Cemex from $7.00 to $8.25 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Citigroup cut Cemex from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $9.00 to $10.00 in a research report on Monday, October 13th. Scotiabank cut shares of Cemex from a “sector outperform” rating to a “sector perform” rating and set a $11.10 price objective for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group increased their price objective on shares of Cemex from $10.00 to $11.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Cemex from $10.00 to $12.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 29th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $10.14.

Cemex Stock Up 3.2%

CX stock opened at $11.55 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $10.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $8.80. Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. has a 12 month low of $4.89 and a 12 month high of $11.57. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.67 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $16.74 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.25 and a beta of 1.61.

Cemex (NYSE:CX) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, October 28th. The construction company reported $0.16 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.01 by $0.15. The company had revenue of $4.25 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $226.73 million. Cemex had a net margin of 8.62% and a return on equity of 6.85%. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cemex Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 23rd. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.0224 per share. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $0.09 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Cemex’s dividend payout ratio is 9.68%.

About Cemex

CEMEX, SAB. de C.V., together with its subsidiaries, produces, markets, distributes, and sells cement, ready-mix concrete, aggregates, urbanization solutions, and other construction materials and services worldwide. The company offers gray ordinary portland, white portland, oil-well, and blended cement products; mortar; and standard ready-mix, architectural and decorative, rapid-setting, fiber-reinforced, fluid-fill, roller-compacted, self-consolidating, pervious, and antibacterial, and other concrete products.