Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:FMX) Given Average Recommendation of "Hold" by Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts assign FMX a consensus "Hold" (five holds, four buys) with a one-year average target of $110.67, and UBS, Goldman Sachs and Barclays recently raised price targets to $122, $128 and $118 respectively.
• The company missed quarterly EPS at $0.92 versus $1.50 expected while reporting revenue of $12.21 billion that beat estimates, and sell-side analysts forecast full-year EPS of 5.32.
• FEMSA raised its quarterly dividend to $2.0531 (annualized $8.21), implying a roughly 8.1% yield and a payout ratio of about 80%.

Fomento Economico Mexicano S.A.B. de C.V. (NYSE:FMX - Get Free Report) has been given a consensus rating of "Hold" by the nine research firms that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and four have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $110.6667.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on FMX. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Fomento Economico Mexicano from $109.00 to $122.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Friday. Weiss Ratings reiterated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Fomento Economico Mexicano in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Fomento Economico Mexicano from $113.00 to $128.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 11th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Fomento Economico Mexicano from $116.00 to $118.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 3rd.

Fomento Economico Mexicano Stock Performance

Shares of FMX stock opened at $101.42 on Monday. The company has a market capitalization of $35.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 35.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.74 and a beta of 0.42. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.39, a quick ratio of 1.02 and a current ratio of 1.35. Fomento Economico Mexicano has a one year low of $83.08 and a one year high of $116.09. The company's 50-day moving average is $108.40 and its 200 day moving average is $100.79.

Fomento Economico Mexicano (NYSE:FMX - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 25th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.50 by ($0.58). Fomento Economico Mexicano had a return on equity of 6.11% and a net margin of 2.29%.The firm had revenue of $12.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $11.98 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Fomento Economico Mexicano will post 5.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Fomento Economico Mexicano Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, January 26th. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 16th were given a $2.0531 dividend. This is a positive change from Fomento Economico Mexicano's previous quarterly dividend of $2.00. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 16th. This represents a $8.21 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 8.1%. Fomento Economico Mexicano's payout ratio is presently 80.00%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Fomento Economico Mexicano

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Fomento Economico Mexicano by 19.0% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 6,072 shares of the company's stock valued at $593,000 after purchasing an additional 969 shares during the last quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. lifted its position in Fomento Economico Mexicano by 8.8% during the second quarter. PNC Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 7,218 shares of the company's stock valued at $743,000 after purchasing an additional 582 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Fomento Economico Mexicano by 92.6% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 5,203 shares of the company's stock worth $536,000 after purchasing an additional 2,501 shares during the last quarter. MAI Capital Management grew its position in Fomento Economico Mexicano by 131.1% in the 2nd quarter. MAI Capital Management now owns 788 shares of the company's stock worth $81,000 after purchasing an additional 447 shares during the period. Finally, American Century Companies Inc. grew its position in Fomento Economico Mexicano by 18.4% in the 2nd quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 304,917 shares of the company's stock worth $31,400,000 after purchasing an additional 47,421 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 61.00% of the company's stock.

About Fomento Economico Mexicano

Fomento Económico Mexicano, SAB. de C.V. (FEMSA) is a Mexican multinational company active primarily in the retail and beverage sectors. Headquartered in Monterrey, Mexico, FEMSA's operations span convenience store retailing, beverage bottling and distribution, and related logistics and consumer services. The company's business model combines high-frequency retail outlets with large-scale beverage production and a regional supply chain network.

FEMSA Comercio, the company's retail arm, operates a large chain of convenience stores under the OXXO brand and has expanded its retail footprint with complementary formats and services.

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