Morgan Advanced Materials (LON:MGAM) Hits New 12-Month Low – Here’s Why

Morgan Advanced Materials plc (LON:MGAM)’s share price reached a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as GBX 193.80 ($2.50) and last traded at GBX 197.40 ($2.55), with a volume of 481692 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at GBX 198.80 ($2.56).

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

MGAM has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reduced their target price on Morgan Advanced Materials from GBX 320 ($4.13) to GBX 265 ($3.42) and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 3rd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of Morgan Advanced Materials from GBX 325 ($4.19) to GBX 330 ($4.26) and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, January 23rd.

Morgan Advanced Materials Stock Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 1.26, a current ratio of 2.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 103.31. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of GBX 237.21 and a two-hundred day moving average price of GBX 254.38. The firm has a market cap of £513.59 million, a PE ratio of 7.50, a P/E/G ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.34.

Morgan Advanced Materials (LON:MGAM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, February 28th. The company reported GBX 25.50 ($0.33) earnings per share for the quarter. Morgan Advanced Materials had a return on equity of 19.02% and a net margin of 6.17%. Research analysts forecast that Morgan Advanced Materials plc will post 32.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Morgan Advanced Materials Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, May 13th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 10th will be paid a dividend of GBX 6.80 ($0.09) per share. This represents a yield of 3.17%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, April 10th. This is a boost from Morgan Advanced Materials’s previous dividend of $5.40. Morgan Advanced Materials’s dividend payout ratio is currently 49.39%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Pete Raby sold 48,253 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of GBX 204 ($2.63), for a total transaction of £98,436.12 ($126,981.58). Corporate insiders own 1.69% of the company’s stock.

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.