BlackRock Fund Advisors recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Vulcan Materials Co (NYSE:VMC). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Basic Materials company by 2.83% to 6.67 million shares with purchase of 0.18 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 5.02% valued currently at $1.43 billion. In addition, JPMorgan Investment Management, I raised its holdings by 1.26 million to 3.49 million shares. And Geode Capital Management LLC has lifted its position by 2.17% or 64034.0 shares – to 3.01 million shares.
With over 0.46 million Vulcan Materials Co (VMC) shares trading Friday and a closing price of $224.93 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $103.44 million. The shares have shown a positive half year performance of 4.73% and its price on 12/22/23 gained nearly 0.74%. Currently, there are 132.90M common shares owned by the public and among those 132.66M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 25 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VMC have a consensus price objective of $245.11. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $279.00 and a low of $215.00. The average price target is 8.23% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -4.62% over that period. But an upside of 19.38% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $250.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 67 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 31 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 109,102 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 36 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 103,225 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Vulcan Materials Co are Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, MFS Growth Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF owns 4.16 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $888.27 million. The company bought an additional 4616.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.13% of the shares outstanding. MFS Growth Fund sold 42643.0 shares to see its total holdings shrink to 3.26 million shares valued at over $695.96 million and representing 2.45% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 17200.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.21 million shares at a value of $685.58 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.42% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Vulcan Materials Co (NYSE: VMC) opened at $224.05, up $0.77 from a prior closing price of $223.28. However, the script later moved the day high at 224.95, up 0.74%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of 0.26% and 11.33% over the past three months. VMC shares are trading 28.45% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance up to 27.83% higher. It has a 12-month low price of $159.76 and touched a high of $229.75 over the same period. VMC has an average intraday trading volume of 832.56K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 3.39%, 6.56%, and 10.70% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Vulcan Materials Co (NYSE: VMC) shares accounts for 92.34% of the company’s 132.90M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 41.86%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 51.00% and 3.68% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $29.89B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.79. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 36.45, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $6.17. The company has a PEG of 1.75 and a Quick Ratio of 2.47 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 0.60. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 1.06% over the week and 1.49% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Vulcan Materials Co (VMC) will achieve an EPS of $1.39 for the current quarter, $1.04 for the next quarter and $8.06 for 2024. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.24 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.53. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.08 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 34.76%, and 17.05% over the next financial year. EPS should grow at an annualized rate of 20.80% over the next five years, compared to -0.68% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 25 brokerage firm advisors rate Vulcan Materials Co (VMC) as a “Strong Buy” at a consensus score of 1.56. Specifically, 17 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 4 of the 25 advise that investors “hold,” and 0 rated it as a “Sell.”
Looking at the support for the VMC, a number of firms have released research notes about the stock. JP Morgan stated their Overweight rating for the stock in a research note on December 12, 2023, with the firm’s price target at $240-$245.
