Compass Minerals International, Inc., produces and sells essential minerals primarily in the United States, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Salt, Plant Nutrition North America, and Plant Nutrition South America. The Salt segment offers sodium chloride and magnesium chloride, including rock salt, mechanically and solar evaporated salt, and brine and flake magnesium chloride products; and purchases potassium chloride and calcium chloride to sell as finished products or to blend with salt to produce specialty products. This segment provides products for use as a deicer for roadways, consumer, and professional use; as an ingredient in chemical production; for water treatment, human, and animal nutrition; and for various other consumer and industrial uses, as well as records management services. The Plant Nutrition North America segment offers sulfate of potash specialty fertilizers in various grades, including agricultural products that are used in broadcast spreaders, direct application, and liquid fertilizer solutions; turf products used by the turf and ornamental markets, as well as for blends used on golf course greens; organic products under the Protassium+ brand; and micronutrient products under the Wolf Trax and other brands. This segment provides its products to distributors and retailers of crop inputs, as well as growers. The Plant Nutrition South America segment offers various specialty plant nutrients and supplements; water and wastewater treatment chemicals for cleaning, decontaminating, and purifying water; and process chemicals for industrial use. The company was formerly known as Salt Holdings Corporation and changed its name to Compass Minerals International, Inc. in December 2003. Compass Minerals International, Inc. was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas.
Compass Minerals International Stock Up 1.5 %
Shares of NYSE:CMP opened at $37.78 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.22, a current ratio of 2.33 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $1.29 billion, a P/E ratio of -17.41 and a beta of 1.45. Compass Minerals International has a 1 year low of $30.67 and a 1 year high of $75.44. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $49.64.
Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP - Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 5th. The basic materials company reported $0.33 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.93 by ($0.60). The firm had revenue of $448.50 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $422.32 million. Compass Minerals International had a positive return on equity of 5.15% and a negative net margin of 6.10%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 5.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.95 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Compass Minerals International will post 0.21 earnings per share for the current year.
Compass Minerals International Announces Dividend
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 20th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 10th were given a dividend of $0.15 per share. This represents a $0.60 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, June 9th. Compass Minerals International's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -27.65%.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
A number of research analysts recently commented on CMP shares. CL King lowered their price target on shares of Compass Minerals International from $67.00 to $52.00 in a report on Wednesday, May 11th. TheStreet downgraded shares of Compass Minerals International from a "c-" rating to a "d+" rating in a report on Wednesday, May 18th. StockNews.com downgraded shares of Compass Minerals International from a "hold" rating to a "sell" rating in a report on Wednesday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lowered their price target on shares of Compass Minerals International from $73.00 to $55.00 in a report on Monday, May 23rd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Compass Minerals International from $60.00 to $63.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Monday, April 18th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, two have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $58.83.
Insider Transactions at Compass Minerals International
In related news, Director Joseph E. Reece bought 5,000 shares of Compass Minerals International stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 16th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $33.41 per share, with a total value of $167,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,000 shares in the company, valued at approximately $367,510. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Kevin S. Crutchfield bought 1,450 shares of Compass Minerals International stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 17th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $34.21 per share, with a total value of $49,604.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 51,745 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,770,196.45. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Joseph E. Reece bought 5,000 shares of Compass Minerals International stock in a transaction dated Thursday, June 16th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $33.41 per share, for a total transaction of $167,050.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 11,000 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $367,510. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have purchased 8,780 shares of company stock valued at $303,533. 1.05% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
