The basic materials sector includes thirteen industries all related to mining, making and delivering essential commodities.The industries are: agricultural inputs; aluminum; building materials; chemicals; coal; copper; industrial metals and minerals; paper; silver; specialty chemicals; steel.

Today I'll review a building materials manufacturer, LafargeHolcim Limited. It's trading ticker symbol is HCMLY. 

LafargeHolcim Ltd as a building materials manufacturer has one main product, cement, which it distributes on a worldwide basis.

The company also produces and distributes ready-mix concrete, concrete products, and asphalt; and offers construction and paving services, and other products and services, as well as provides waste management solutions.

The company was formerly known as Holcim Ltd. and changed its name to LafargeHolcim Ltd in July 2015.

LafargeHolcim Ltd was founded in 1833 and is headquartered in Jona, Switzerland.

Three key data sets measure dividend equities or funds like LafargeHolcim Ltd: 

(1) Price

(2) Dividends

(3) Returns

Beside those three, four more keys will unlock an equity or fund in which to invest.

Those first three primary key sets, however, best tell whether a company has made, is making, and will make money. 

HCMLY Price

LafargeHolcim Ltd's price at yesterday's (Thursday) market close was $11.52 per share. A year ago its price was $11.50. Indeed, it gained  $0.02 per share in the past year.  

Assuming LafargeHolcim Ltd price trends flat this coming year its value will stay between its ten year high of $17.30 and low of $5.70 or around $11.50

HCMLY Dividends

LafargeHolcim Ltd's most recent annual dividend was $0.40 paid in May.

The annual dividend for 2018 is estimated at $0.40 payable in June.

The yield from that $0.40 annual dividend was 3.5% at Thursday's $11.52 price.

Gains For HCMLY?

Using the $0.40 dividend as the single year over year price gain means it will bear the cost to trade LafargeHolcim Ltd shares.  

If $1,000.00 was invested at yesterday's $11.52 price, it bought 87 shares. 

At $5 for purchase and another $5 at sale, the broker fee is about $0.115 per share

Subtracting that $0.115 brokerage cost from the estimated $0.40 gross dividend only gain leaves a net gain to next year of $.285

X 87 shares 

= $24.79

or a 2% net gain on a $1,002.24 investment.

Therefore, LafargeHolcim Ltd (whose ticker symbol is HCMLY), now shows a possible 2% gain from a 3.5% dividend. 

No analysts cover this stock. However as I mentioned above, the stock has traded in a range of $6 to $17 for the past ten years. It is now priced solidly in the middle of that range.

These forward-looking numbers are conjecture based on past year performance. The actual results remain to be seen. They could turn out to be far higher or lower. More study is required for you to determine if LafargeHolcim Ltd is worth your time and money.