Phoenix Financial Ltd. Sells 4,032 Shares of Crh Plc $CRH

Phoenix Financial Ltd. reduced its position in shares of Crh Plc (NYSE:CRH) by 7.2% in the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 52,081 shares of the construction company’s stock after selling 4,032 shares during the quarter. Phoenix Financial Ltd.’s holdings in CRH were worth $4,781,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ninety One UK Ltd raised its holdings in CRH by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One UK Ltd now owns 3,143,490 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $288,572,000 after acquiring an additional 364,319 shares during the last quarter. GSA Capital Partners LLP purchased a new position in shares of CRH in the first quarter worth $744,000. Hsbc Holdings PLC lifted its holdings in shares of CRH by 100.2% during the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 452,776 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $39,318,000 after purchasing an additional 226,602 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of CRH by 43.2% during the first quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 10,303,788 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $906,424,000 after purchasing an additional 3,108,416 shares in the last quarter. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in shares of CRH by 27.4% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,919 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $169,000 after buying an additional 413 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 62.50% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on CRH. Vertical Research upgraded shares of CRH to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday, August 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of CRH from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 11th. DA Davidson restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $105.00 target price (down previously from $120.00) on shares of CRH in a report on Thursday, July 10th. Jefferies Financial Group upgraded shares of CRH to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Monday, September 22nd. Finally, Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b)” rating on shares of CRH in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, twelve have issued a Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $127.71.

CRH Price Performance

Shares of CRH stock opened at $118.26 on Wednesday. Crh Plc has a 1-year low of $76.75 and a 1-year high of $121.88. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $114.40 and its 200-day simple moving average is $100.60. The stock has a market capitalization of $79.55 billion, a PE ratio of 24.74, a P/E/G ratio of 1.66 and a beta of 1.32.

CRH (NYSE:CRH) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 6th. The construction company reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.06 by ($0.12). CRH had a return on equity of 15.68% and a net margin of 9.09%.The company had revenue of $10.21 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $10.27 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.88 earnings per share. CRH’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Crh Plc will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

CRH Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, September 24th. Investors of record on Friday, August 22nd were paid a dividend of $0.37 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, August 22nd. This represents a $1.48 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. CRH’s payout ratio is 23.22%.

CRH Profile

CRH plc, together with its subsidiaries, provides building materials solutions in Ireland and internationally. It operates through four segments: Americas Materials Solutions, Americas Building Solutions, Europe Materials Solutions, and Europe Building Solutions. The company provides solutions for the construction and maintenance of public infrastructure and commercial and residential buildings; and produces and sells aggregates, cement, readymixed concrete, and asphalt, as well as provides paving and construction services.