Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC Acquires New Shares in Methanex Co. (NASDAQ:MEOH)

Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC bought a new stake in Methanex Co. (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm bought 8,973 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $448,000.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its stake in shares of Methanex by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,836,661 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $241,549,000 after purchasing an additional 62,467 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in Methanex by 3.0% during the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 3,330,889 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $166,384,000 after purchasing an additional 95,950 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Methanex by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 2,116,860 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $105,779,000 after purchasing an additional 37,658 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in Methanex by 5.0% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,047,978 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $52,334,000 after buying an additional 50,075 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners grew its stake in shares of Methanex by 36.0% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 989,534 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $49,393,000 after buying an additional 262,087 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 73.49% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently commented on MEOH shares. Scotiabank upgraded Methanex from a “sector perform” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and set a $53.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, May 5th. CIBC reduced their price objective on Methanex from $47.00 to $44.00 and set an “outperformer” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, May 5th. Barclays dropped their target price on Methanex from $57.00 to $41.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, April 1st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Methanex from $55.00 to $50.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on Methanex from $51.00 to $50.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Methanex currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $46.75.

Methanex Stock Down 2.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:MEOH opened at $34.09 on Thursday. The firm has a market cap of $2.30 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.76 and a beta of 0.93. Methanex Co. has a 12-month low of $25.46 and a 12-month high of $56.43. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.39 and a 200 day simple moving average of $41.59. The company has a quick ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 2.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.01.

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, April 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $1.30 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.25 by $0.05. Methanex had a return on equity of 10.97% and a net margin of 4.41%. The company had revenue of $857.90 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.06 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.65 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that Methanex Co. will post 4.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Methanex Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, June 16th will be given a dividend of $0.185 per share. This represents a $0.74 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, June 16th. Methanex’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.83%.

Methanex Profile

Methanex Corporation produces and supplies methanol in China, Europe, the United States, South America, South Korea, Canada, and Asia. The company also purchases methanol produced by others under methanol offtake contracts and on the spot market. In addition, it owns and leases storage and terminal facilities.