Norges Bank Acquires Shares of 21,297,802 ICL Group Ltd. $ICL

Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of ICL Group Ltd. (NYSE:ICL) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm bought 21,297,802 shares of the basic materials company’s stock, valued at approximately $122,297,000.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in ICL. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of ICL Group by 1.3% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 29,066,383 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $167,132,000 after purchasing an additional 382,780 shares during the period. Y.D. More Investments Ltd grew its stake in ICL Group by 5.5% in the fourth quarter. Y.D. More Investments Ltd now owns 18,738,939 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $107,498,000 after purchasing an additional 979,321 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in ICL Group by 11.0% in the fourth quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 4,245,458 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $24,371,000 after purchasing an additional 419,540 shares in the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its holdings in ICL Group by 120.2% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 4,153,799 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $23,635,000 after purchasing an additional 2,267,245 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE lifted its position in ICL Group by 19.0% during the third quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 2,544,788 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $15,829,000 after buying an additional 405,889 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 13.38% of the company’s stock.

ICL Group Trading Down 3.7%

NYSE:ICL opened at $5.90 on Friday. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $5.78 and its 200-day moving average price is $5.50. ICL Group Ltd. has a 52 week low of $4.76 and a 52 week high of $7.35. The company has a quick ratio of 0.80, a current ratio of 1.38 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. The stock has a market cap of $7.61 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.48 and a beta of 0.92.

ICL Group (NYSE:ICL) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 13th. The basic materials company reported $0.11 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.10 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.92 billion. ICL Group had a net margin of 3.52% and a return on equity of 7.84%. On average, equities research analysts forecast that ICL Group Ltd. will post 0.43 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

ICL Group Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, June 17th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 2nd will be paid a $0.0535 dividend. This is an increase from ICL Group’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.05. This represents a $0.21 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, June 2nd. ICL Group’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 80.00%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently commented on ICL shares. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of ICL Group from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, May 4th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of ICL Group from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday, May 16th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of ICL Group from $6.00 to $7.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, May 18th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating, Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $6.60.

ICL Group Company Profile

ICL Group is a global specialty minerals and chemicals company headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. Established in its current form through the consolidation of Israeli government–owned chemical operations, ICL has evolved into a publicly traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ICL). The company’s origins date back to state-driven mineral extraction in the Negev and the Dead Sea region, and over the decades it has grown through strategic acquisitions, technological innovation and a gradual privatization process completed in the early 2010s.

ICL’s core operations are organized into three principal business areas.