National Bank of Canada FI Acquires 27,131 Shares of BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP)

National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in shares of BHP Group Limited (NYSE:BHP) by 19.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 164,809 shares of the mining company’s stock after buying an additional 27,131 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI’s holdings in BHP Group were worth $8,048,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of BHP. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its position in shares of BHP Group by 13.0% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 5,603,624 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $348,041,000 after acquiring an additional 642,765 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of BHP Group during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,878,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of BHP Group during the 4th quarter worth about $20,574,000. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of BHP Group by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 22,225,134 shares of the mining company’s stock valued at $1,085,253,000 after buying an additional 280,258 shares during the period. Finally, SPX Gestao de Recursos Ltda bought a new stake in BHP Group in the 4th quarter valued at about $9,323,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 3.79% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have commented on BHP shares. Jefferies Financial Group reduced their price objective on BHP Group from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 6th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of BHP Group from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Clarkson Capital upgraded shares of BHP Group to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, BHP Group presently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and a consensus target price of $53.00.

BHP Group Stock Down 9.5 %

Shares of NYSE:BHP opened at $42.08 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $49.71 and its 200 day moving average is $52.23. BHP Group Limited has a 12-month low of $41.67 and a 12-month high of $63.21. The stock has a market cap of $106.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.56 and a beta of 0.90. The company has a quick ratio of 1.25, a current ratio of 1.70 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.40.

BHP Group Cuts Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a semi-annual dividend, which was paid on Thursday, March 27th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 7th were issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. This represents a yield of 4.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. BHP Group’s dividend payout ratio is 44.77%.

About BHP Group

BHP Group Limited operates as a resources company in Australia, Europe, China, Japan, India, South Korea, the rest of Asia, North America, South America, and internationally. The company operates through Copper, Iron Ore, and Coal segments. It engages in the mining of copper, uranium, gold, zinc, lead, molybdenum, silver, iron ore, cobalt, and metallurgical and energy coal.