Huntsman Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HUN)

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Friday. Traders acquired 40,557 put options on the company. This is an increase of 1,514% compared to the average daily volume of 2,513 put options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HUN has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price target on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the company from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.55.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pathstone Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 3.4% during the fourth quarter. Pathstone Family Office LLC now owns 12,569 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $156,000 after purchasing an additional 418 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 1.1% during the second quarter. Creative Planning now owns 41,382 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,173,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the last quarter. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 1.7% during the first quarter. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC now owns 30,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $802,000 after purchasing an additional 505 shares during the last quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 93.0% during the fourth quarter. Quadrant Capital Group LLC now owns 1,081 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 521 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 5.0% during the third quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC now owns 11,628 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $284,000 after purchasing an additional 557 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Huntsman Stock Down 0.0 %

Shares of Huntsman stock traded down $0.01 on Friday, hitting $23.71. The company had a trading volume of 305,673 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,955,424. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.75 and a beta of 1.12. Huntsman has a twelve month low of $22.14 and a twelve month high of $29.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a current ratio of 1.97 and a quick ratio of 1.23. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.21 and a 200-day moving average of $24.62.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.33 billion. Huntsman had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 1.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.04 EPS. Research analysts predict that Huntsman will post 0.47 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is a boost from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.22%. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is presently 188.68%.

Huntsman Company Profile

Huntsman Corporation manufactures and sells diversified organic chemical products worldwide. The company operates in three segments: Polyurethanes, Performance Products, and Advanced Materials. The Polyurethanes segment offers polyurethane chemicals, including methyl diphenyl diisocyanate, polyether and polyester polyols, and thermoplastic polyurethane; and aniline, benzene, nitrobenzene and other co-products.