Forterra (LON:FORT) Stock Price Up 0.7% – Still a Buy?

Forterra plc (LON:FORT) rose 0.7% during mid-day trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as GBX 195 ($2.59) and last traded at GBX 189 ($2.51). Approximately 128,561 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 86% from the average daily volume of 896,948 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 187.60 ($2.49).

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

FORT has been the subject of several research reports. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Forterra from GBX 210 ($2.79) to GBX 220 ($2.92) and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 13th. Berenberg Bank reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a GBX 170 ($2.26) price objective on shares of Forterra in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on shares of Forterra from GBX 260 ($3.45) to GBX 320 ($4.25) and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th.

Forterra Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is GBX 174.28 and its two-hundred day moving average price is GBX 170.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 59.58, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 1.79. The firm has a market cap of £388.17 million, a PE ratio of 49.27, a PEG ratio of 0.30 and a beta of 1.25.

Forterra (LON:FORT) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, March 12th. The company reported GBX 7.60 ($0.10) earnings per share for the quarter. Forterra had a net margin of 2.46% and a return on equity of 3.76%. On average, research analysts forecast that Forterra plc will post 11.9888346 earnings per share for the current year.

Forterra Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Friday, July 4th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, June 12th will be issued a GBX 2 ($0.03) dividend. This is a positive change from Forterra’s previous dividend of $1.00. This represents a dividend yield of 1.24%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, June 12th. Forterra’s dividend payout ratio is currently 78.21%.

Insider Transactions at Forterra

In other Forterra news, insider Ben Guyatt sold 37,622 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 157 ($2.09), for a total transaction of £59,066.54 ($78,462.46). Also, insider Katherine Innes bought 2,600 shares of Forterra stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 1st. The shares were acquired at an average price of GBX 173 ($2.30) per share, for a total transaction of £4,498 ($5,975.03). Company insiders own 6.91% of the company’s stock.

About Forterra

Forterra is a leading UK manufacturer of essential clay and concrete building products, with a unique combination of strong market positions in clay bricks, concrete blocks and precast concrete flooring. Our heritage dates back many decades and the durability, longevity and inherent sustainability of our products is evident in the construction of buildings that last for generations; wherever you are in Britain, you won’t be far from a building with a Forterra product within its fabric.

Our clay brick business combines our extensive secure mineral reserves with modern and efficient high-volume manufacturing processes to produce large quantities of extruded and soft mud bricks, primarily for the new build housing market.