Black Creek Investment Management Inc. Invests $103.78 Million in Eagle Materials Inc $EXP

Black Creek Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE:EXP) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor bought 502,120 shares of the construction company’s stock, valued at approximately $103,778,000. Eagle Materials accounts for approximately 5.1% of Black Creek Investment Management Inc.’s holdings, making the stock its 9th largest position.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec grew its stake in Eagle Materials by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec now owns 1,426 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $332,000 after acquiring an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC grew its stake in Eagle Materials by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 389 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $80,000 after acquiring an additional 53 shares in the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in Eagle Materials by 20.3% during the 3rd quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 326 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $76,000 after acquiring an additional 55 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Eagle Materials by 5.9% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,048 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $217,000 after acquiring an additional 58 shares in the last quarter. Finally, M&T Bank Corp grew its stake in Eagle Materials by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 2,406 shares of the construction company’s stock valued at $498,000 after acquiring an additional 61 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.07% of the company’s stock.

Eagle Materials Stock Performance

Eagle Materials stock opened at $214.86 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $205.45 and a 200-day simple moving average of $211.51. Eagle Materials Inc has a 1-year low of $171.99 and a 1-year high of $243.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.18, a current ratio of 3.66 and a quick ratio of 2.09. The stock has a market cap of $6.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.38 and a beta of 1.37.

Eagle Materials (NYSE:EXP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, May 19th. The construction company reported $1.91 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.59 by $0.32. Eagle Materials had a net margin of 18.36% and a return on equity of 28.27%. The business had revenue of $479.11 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $451.99 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $2.00 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Eagle Materials Inc will post 13.02 EPS for the current year.

Eagle Materials Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, July 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, June 15th will be paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, June 15th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.5%. Eagle Materials’s dividend payout ratio is 7.62%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently issued reports on EXP. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of Eagle Materials from $240.00 to $246.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of Eagle Materials from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $225.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Jefferies Financial Group reaffirmed a “hold” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of Eagle Materials in a research note on Wednesday, May 20th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Eagle Materials from $224.00 to $217.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, May 21st. Finally, Zacks Research raised shares of Eagle Materials from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, March 23rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $224.30.

About Eagle Materials

Eagle Materials Inc (NYSE:EXP) is a Dallas, Texas–based manufacturer of building materials serving construction and heavy industry markets across the United States. The company’s primary products include portland and masonry cements, gypsum wallboard, lightweight aggregate, paperboard packaging, and roofing granules. These product lines support a wide range of end uses—from residential and commercial buildings to infrastructure projects and industrial applications.

Since its spin-off from a major homebuilding company in 2004, Eagle Materials has grown through targeted facility expansions and strategic acquisitions.