Morgan Advanced Materials (LON:MGAM) Trading Down 13.1% After Analyst Downgrade

Key Points

• Morgan Advanced Materials shares fell 13.1% after Royal Bank of Canada reduced their price target from GBX 275 to GBX 250, although the bank still maintains an outperform rating.
• Citigroup also lowered its target price for the company from GBX 265 to GBX 240 while keeping a "buy" rating.
• Insider trading activity saw significant sales, with 93,951 shares sold in the past ninety days, indicating potential concerns among company insiders.

Shares of Morgan Advanced Materials plc (LON:MGAM - Get Free Report) dropped 13.1% during trading on Thursday after Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their price target on the stock from GBX 275 to GBX 250. Royal Bank Of Canada currently has an outperform rating on the stock. Morgan Advanced Materials traded as low as GBX 167 ($2.24) and last traded at GBX 196 ($2.63). Approximately 2,395,195 shares were traded during trading, an increase of 89% from the average daily volume of 1,269,546 shares. The stock had previously closed at GBX 225.50 ($3.03).

Separately, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Morgan Advanced Materials from GBX 265 ($3.56) to GBX 240 ($3.22) and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday.

Insider Transactions at Morgan Advanced Materials

In related news, insider Richard Armitage sold 26,348 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of GBX 212 ($2.85), for a total transaction of £55,857.76 ($75,027.21). Also, insider Damien Caby sold 15,016 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 212 ($2.85), for a total value of £31,833.92 ($42,758.79). Company insiders own 1.69% of the company's stock.

Morgan Advanced Materials Stock Performance

The firm has a market cap of £568.00 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.34. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of GBX 219.93 and a 200 day moving average price of GBX 219.40. The company has a current ratio of 2.19, a quick ratio of 1.26 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 103.31.

Morgan Advanced Materials (LON:MGAM - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported GBX 10.80 ($0.15) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter. Morgan Advanced Materials had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 6.17%. As a group, analysts predict that Morgan Advanced Materials plc will post 32.5 earnings per share for the current year.

About Morgan Advanced Materials

Morgan Advanced Materials plc operates as a materials science and application engineering company primarily the United Kingdom. It serves customers in the industrial, transportation, petrochemical and chemical, energy, semiconductor and electronics, healthcare, and security and defense markets. The company was formerly known as The Morgan Crucible Company plc and changed its name to Morgan Advanced Materials plc in March 2013.