Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX) Stock Price Passes Above 200 Day Moving Average - Should You Sell?

Key Points

• Technical breakout: Quanex shares crossed above their 200‑day moving average (200‑day $16.43), trading as high as $20.53 and last at $20.22, with the 50‑day at $19.30 and the stock trading up about 4.9%.
• Analyst view and valuation: the consensus rating is a Hold with an average price target of $28 and mixed analyst opinions (1 Buy/1 Hold/1 Sell); the company has a market cap of about $928.8M and a negative trailing P/E of -3.84 despite sell‑side forecasts of 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.
• Dividends and ownership: Quanex recently paid a $0.08 quarterly dividend (annualized $0.32, ~1.6% yield) and has very high institutional ownership (97.48%) with recent stake increases from firms including Goldman Sachs, Jane Street and RBC.

Quanex Building Products Corporation (NYSE:NX - Get Free Report) shares crossed above its two hundred day moving average during trading on Thursday . The stock has a two hundred day moving average of $16.43 and traded as high as $20.53. Quanex Building Products shares last traded at $20.2210, with a volume of 449,007 shares traded.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NX shares. Zacks Research upgraded Quanex Building Products from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Weiss Ratings restated a "sell (d)" rating on shares of Quanex Building Products in a research report on Thursday, January 22nd. Benchmark reduced their price target on Quanex Building Products from $30.00 to $28.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 15th. Finally, Wall Street Zen lowered Quanex Building Products from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Saturday, March 14th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $28.00.

Quanex Building Products Trading Up 4.9%

The company has a market cap of $928.75 million, a PE ratio of -3.84, a PEG ratio of 0.70 and a beta of 0.93. The company has a current ratio of 2.31, a quick ratio of 1.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.93. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $19.30 and a 200 day moving average price of $16.43.

Quanex Building Products (NYSE:NX - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, March 5th. The construction company reported ($0.01) EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of ($0.05) by $0.04. The company had revenue of $409.09 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $405.75 million. Quanex Building Products had a positive return on equity of 12.24% and a negative net margin of 13.00%. Sell-side analysts predict that Quanex Building Products Corporation will post 2.18 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Quanex Building Products Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 17th were paid a $0.08 dividend. This represents a $0.32 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.6%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 17th. Quanex Building Products's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -6.08%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Royal Bank of Canada raised its stake in Quanex Building Products by 22.6% during the first quarter. Royal Bank of Canada now owns 25,578 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $476,000 after buying an additional 4,720 shares during the last quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. raised its stake in Quanex Building Products by 9.1% during the first quarter. MIRAE ASSET GLOBAL ETFS HOLDINGS Ltd. now owns 28,051 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $521,000 after buying an additional 2,347 shares during the last quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. raised its stake in Quanex Building Products by 25.4% during the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 246,666 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $4,586,000 after buying an additional 49,895 shares during the last quarter. Jane Street Group LLC raised its stake in Quanex Building Products by 887.4% during the first quarter. Jane Street Group LLC now owns 84,957 shares of the construction company's stock valued at $1,579,000 after buying an additional 76,353 shares during the last quarter. Finally, iSAM Funds UK Ltd purchased a new position in Quanex Building Products during the second quarter valued at $236,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 97.48% of the company's stock.

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.

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