Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP) Upgraded to “Overweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $15.00 price objective on the basic materials company’s stock, up from their previous price objective of $13.00.

Separately, BMO Capital Markets dropped their price objective on Compass Minerals International from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, December 18th.

Compass Minerals International Stock Up 0.2 %

Compass Minerals International stock opened at $11.44 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $12.26 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $11.98. The stock has a market cap of $474.42 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -2.20, a PEG ratio of 1.17 and a beta of 1.21. Compass Minerals International has a 52 week low of $7.51 and a 52 week high of $23.59. The company has a current ratio of 2.71, a quick ratio of 0.80 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.87.

Compass Minerals International (NYSE:CMP) last announced its earnings results on Monday, February 10th. The basic materials company reported ($0.55) EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.05) by ($0.50). Compass Minerals International had a negative return on equity of 2.15% and a negative net margin of 19.24%. On average, analysts expect that Compass Minerals International will post 0.33 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Trading of Compass Minerals International

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in CMP. Ballentine Partners LLC grew its position in Compass Minerals International by 3.6% in the fourth quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 21,559 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $243,000 after buying an additional 748 shares during the last quarter. Denver PWM LLC boosted its stake in shares of Compass Minerals International by 33.8% during the 3rd quarter. Denver PWM LLC now owns 3,745 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $45,000 after acquiring an additional 946 shares in the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC grew its holdings in shares of Compass Minerals International by 3.9% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 38,326 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $461,000 after acquiring an additional 1,437 shares during the last quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Compass Minerals International by 2.3% during the third quarter. Wolverine Asset Management LLC now owns 66,940 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $805,000 after purchasing an additional 1,482 shares during the period. Finally, Ironwood Investment Management LLC raised its position in shares of Compass Minerals International by 6.2% during the fourth quarter. Ironwood Investment Management LLC now owns 29,842 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 1,738 shares during the period. 99.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

About Compass Minerals International

Compass Minerals International, Inc, provides essential minerals in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Salt and Plant Nutrition. The Salt segment produces, markets, and sells 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 sodium chloride to produce specialty products.