Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the ten brokerages that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have issued a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month target price among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $26.55.

Several research firms have issued reports on HUN. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective 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. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Friday, February 23rd.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of HUN stock opened at $23.67 on Friday. Huntsman has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $29.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.97. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $25.21 and a 200 day moving average price of $24.62. The firm has a market capitalization of $4.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.66 and a beta of 1.12.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.07). Huntsman had a return on equity of 1.92% and a net margin of 1.65%. The business had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.04 earnings per share. Huntsman’s quarterly revenue was down 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.48 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is an increase from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.22%. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio is 188.68%.

Institutional Trading of Huntsman

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. BlackRock Inc. raised its holdings in Huntsman by 1.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,441,732 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $367,766,000 after acquiring an additional 215,413 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Huntsman by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 10,214,010 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $256,681,000 after acquiring an additional 210,754 shares in the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 2.2% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,379,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $204,455,000 after acquiring an additional 183,734 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 2.4% in the third quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,463,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $157,717,000 after acquiring an additional 152,667 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp raised its holdings in Huntsman by 0.5% in the second quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 5,719,453 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $154,540,000 after acquiring an additional 28,931 shares in the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.