Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Sells 40,898 Shares of Crh Plc $CRH

Key Points

• Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group reduced its CRH position by 40,898 shares, or 2.6%, during the third quarter, leaving it with 1.52 million shares valued at approximately $125.6 million. Institutional investors own 62.5% of CRH.
• Analysts remain broadly bullish: 19 rate CRH a Buy and one rates it Hold, producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $126.13, despite several recent target-price cuts.
• CRH reported quarterly EPS of $2.09, slightly above estimates, while revenue rose 3% year over year to $11.4 billion. The company also declared a quarterly dividend of $0.39 per share, equivalent to a 1.6% annual yield.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lessened its position in Crh Plc (NYSE:CRH - Free Report) by 2.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,516,433 shares of the construction company's stock after selling 40,898 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned approximately 0.23% of CRH worth $125,561,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Amundi lifted its position in CRH by 74.7% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 5,965,814 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $627,126,000 after purchasing an additional 2,550,178 shares during the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of CRH by 441.4% in the first quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 1,468,493 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $154,218,000 after purchasing an additional 1,197,255 shares during the period. Renaissance Technologies LLC acquired a new stake in shares of CRH in the first quarter valued at approximately $79,124,000. Janus Henderson Group PLC increased its stake in shares of CRH by 27.9% in the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 2,186,541 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $228,994,000 after purchasing an additional 477,242 shares during the period. Finally, Engineers Gate Manager LP raised its holdings in shares of CRH by 1,838.4% during the second quarter. Engineers Gate Manager LP now owns 461,503 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $49,381,000 after buying an additional 437,694 shares during the last quarter. 62.50% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

CRH has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price target on CRH from $165.00 to $135.00 and set an "outperform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, October 9th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on CRH from $106.00 to $100.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their target price on CRH from $159.50 to $126.50 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Stephens raised their target price on CRH from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Monday. Finally, Morgan Stanley began coverage on CRH in a research note on Friday, September 11th. They set an "overweight" rating and a $139.00 target price on the stock. Nineteen research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, CRH has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $126.13.

CRH Stock Up 6.1%

Shares of CRH stock opened at $96.33 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $87.21 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.08. Crh Plc has a fifty-two week low of $78.62 and a fifty-two week high of $131.55. The stock has a market capitalization of $64.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.07, a P/E/G ratio of 1.57 and a beta of 1.31.

CRH (NYSE:CRH - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, October 29th. The construction company reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.06 by $0.03. CRH had a return on equity of 15.76% and a net margin of 9.93%. The firm had revenue of $11.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.56 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $2.21 earnings per share. CRH's revenue was up 3.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Crh Plc will post 5.48 earnings per share for the current year.

CRH Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 9th. Stockholders of record on Friday, November 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, November 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.6%. CRH's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.27%.

CRH Profile

CRH plc is a global building materials company that supplies products and solutions used in residential, commercial and infrastructure construction. Its activities include the production and distribution of aggregates, asphalt, ready-mixed concrete, cement and other construction materials, as well as value-added products such as precast concrete, architectural products and site-development solutions.

The company serves customers across North America and Europe, including contractors, construction companies, infrastructure developers, distributors and public-sector organizations.

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