Legal & General Group Plc Buys Shares of 57,979 Methanex Corporation $MEOH

Legal & General Group Plc bought a new position in shares of Methanex Corporation (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 57,979 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,677,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in Methanex by 629.5% during the 4th quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 2,316,270 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $92,000,000 after purchasing an additional 1,998,763 shares in the last quarter. Connor Clark & Lunn Investment Management Ltd. bought a new stake in shares of Methanex in the second quarter valued at about $53,605,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in Methanex in the fourth quarter worth about $34,872,000. Boston Partners grew its holdings in Methanex by 686.0% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 963,408 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $38,277,000 after acquiring an additional 840,831 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Methanex by 116.8% during the 3rd quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 1,157,233 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $46,011,000 after purchasing an additional 623,502 shares during the period. 73.49% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have weighed in on MEOH. Zacks Research lowered Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, June 22nd. Wall Street Zen lowered Methanex from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 15th. National Bank Financial set a $70.00 price objective on Methanex and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, July 13th. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce raised Methanex from a “neutral” rating to a “sector outperform” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $69.00 to $71.00 in a research report on Monday, July 20th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Methanex from $70.00 to $71.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, July 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and five have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $68.56.

Methanex Stock Down 1.1%

MEOH stock opened at $58.72 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $4.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 57.01 and a beta of 0.58. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $54.08 and a two-hundred day moving average of $56.03. Methanex Corporation has a 12 month low of $32.00 and a 12 month high of $66.75. The company has a current ratio of 2.07, a quick ratio of 1.35 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.83.

Methanex (NASDAQ:MEOH) (TSE:MX) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, July 28th. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.87 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $4.00 by ($0.13). The company had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.43 billion. Methanex had a return on equity of 11.35% and a net margin of 2.07%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 75.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.97 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that Methanex Corporation will post 8.6 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Methanex Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 16th will be given a dividend of $0.185 per share. This represents a $0.74 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 16th. Methanex’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 71.84%.

About Methanex

Methanex Corporation is a Vancouver, Canada–based company and one of the world’s largest producers and suppliers of methanol. The company manufactures methanol, a key feedstock for a wide range of chemical products and industrial applications. Methanex markets its product to customers in energy, plastics, paints and coatings, and various chemical sectors, positioning the company as a critical link in the global supply chain for basic chemicals.

The company’s core product, methanol, serves as a building block for downstream chemicals such as formaldehyde, acetic acid and methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE).