Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:CX) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

Cemex S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:CX) was the recipient of a large growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totaling 11,089,340 shares, a growth of 57.8% from the March 15th total of 7,028,233 shares. Currently, 0.8% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily volume of 6,953,228 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 1.6 days.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Cemex

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Cemex by 5.7% in the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 16,802 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $193,000 after purchasing an additional 913 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Cemex by 0.4% during the third quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 319,835 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $2,875,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221 shares during the period. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC boosted its position in Cemex by 5.5% during the third quarter. Vanguard Personalized Indexing Management LLC now owns 24,201 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,268 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its position in Cemex by 4.7% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 28,609 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $329,000 after purchasing an additional 1,288 shares during the period. Finally, Ieq Capital LLC boosted its position in Cemex by 7.6% during the fourth quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 19,598 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $225,000 after purchasing an additional 1,380 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

Cemex Trading Up 0.5%

Cemex stock opened at $11.89 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $11.62 and its 200-day simple moving average is $11.15. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.83 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39. Cemex has a 12 month low of $5.12 and a 12 month high of $13.35. The stock has a market cap of $17.22 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.01 and a beta of 1.60.

Cemex (NYSE:CX) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 5th. The construction company reported ($0.19) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.19 by ($0.38). The company had revenue of $4.18 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $4.01 billion. Cemex had a net margin of 5.93% and a return on equity of 2.85%. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Cemex will post 0.69 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Cemex Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 19th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 11th were paid a $0.0225 dividend. This represents a $0.09 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. This is a positive change from Cemex’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.02. Cemex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 13.64%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on CX. Zacks Research cut Cemex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, February 9th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Cemex in a research note on Wednesday, January 21st. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating on shares of Cemex in a research note on Thursday, March 12th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Cemex from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $14.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, March 23rd. Finally, Scotiabank lifted their price objective on shares of Cemex from $13.90 to $14.10 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, April 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Cemex currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $11.83.

About Cemex

Cemex (NYSE: CX) is a global building materials company headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico. The company produces, distributes and sells cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates, as well as related building materials, to construction markets in more than 50 countries. Cemex’s product portfolio also includes asphalt and mortar mixes, waste-derived fuels and other complementary construction solutions, supported by a network of production facilities, distribution centers and logistics operations.

Founded in 1906 as Cementos Hidalgo, the company adopted the Cemex name in 1976 following a series of domestic mergers and expansions.