Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Acquires New Shares in Quanex Building Products Corporation $NX

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund acquired a new position in Quanex Building Products Corporation (NYSE:NX) in the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 27,164 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $488,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in Quanex Building Products by 41.7% during the first quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 308,194 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $5,538,000 after buying an additional 90,765 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its stake in shares of Quanex Building Products by 6,639.2% during the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 43,535 shares of the construction company’s stock worth $782,000 after acquiring an additional 42,889 shares in the last quarter. Counterpoint Mutual Funds LLC bought a new stake in shares of Quanex Building Products during the 1st quarter worth about $281,000. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of Quanex Building Products during the 1st quarter valued at about $367,000. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC raised its stake in shares of Quanex Building Products by 12.4% in the 4th quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 33,581 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $519,000 after acquiring an additional 3,698 shares in the last quarter. 97.48% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Quanex Building Products Stock Up 1.8%

Quanex Building Products stock opened at $18.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $854.03 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -3.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.79 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93, a current ratio of 2.28 and a quick ratio of 1.23. Quanex Building Products Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $11.04 and a fifty-two week high of $22.98. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $17.44 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $18.55.

Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, June 4th. The construction company reported $0.25 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.22 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $462.37 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $459.27 million. Quanex Building Products had a negative net margin of 13.85% and a positive return on equity of 11.11%. As a group, analysts forecast that Quanex Building Products Corporation will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Quanex Building Products Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, June 30th. Investors of record on Monday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.08 per share. The ex-dividend date was Monday, June 15th. This represents a $0.32 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.7%. Quanex Building Products’s dividend payout ratio is presently -5.68%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Weiss Ratings restated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Quanex Building Products in a report on Friday, July 17th. Zacks Research upgraded Quanex Building Products from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, July 17th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $28.00.

Quanex Building Products Company Profile

Quanex Building Products Corporation engages in the design, manufacture and distribution of components for the window, door and building products industries in North America. The company operates through two primary segments: Window Products and Door & Building Products. Its Window Products segment supplies vinyl window profiles and related accessories, while its Door & Building Products segment offers engineered door skins, panels, siding products, specialty moldings and other exterior building components.

Within its Window Products segment, Quanex produces extrusion profiles used by window fabricators to assemble vinyl casement, double-hung, slider and picture windows.