Olin Co. (OLN) To Go Ex-Dividend on May 8th

Olin Co. (NYSE:OLN) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, April 25th, Zacks reports. Investors of record on Thursday, May 9th will be paid a dividend of 0.20 per share by the specialty chemicals company on Friday, June 14th. This represents a $0.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.50%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, May 8th.

Olin has a payout ratio of 13.0% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Olin to earn $6.37 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 12.6%.

Olin Stock Up 1.2 %

NYSE:OLN traded up $0.66 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $53.48. 2,022,077 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 755,565. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $55.63 and a 200 day simple moving average of $51.63. Olin has a fifty-two week low of $41.71 and a fifty-two week high of $60.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.73 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.14. The company has a market capitalization of $6.40 billion, a PE ratio of 19.24, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.29 and a beta of 1.44.

Olin (NYSE:OLN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Friday, April 26th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.40 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.36 by $0.04. Olin had a net margin of 5.32% and a return on equity of 14.22%. The firm had revenue of $1.64 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.16 EPS. Olin’s revenue for the quarter was down 11.3% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Olin will post 3.73 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on OLN shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Olin from $56.00 to $60.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, April 3rd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Olin from $57.00 to $59.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 4th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of Olin from $65.00 to $66.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, January 29th. KeyCorp lifted their price objective on shares of Olin from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on shares of Olin from $64.00 to $69.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, April 19th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $59.33.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Scott Mcdougald Sutton sold 539,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.96, for a total transaction of $29,102,138.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 47,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,569,575.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CEO Scott Mcdougald Sutton sold 539,328 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $53.96, for a total transaction of $29,102,138.88. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 47,620 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,569,575.20. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Todd A. Slater sold 63,250 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $54.15, for a total transaction of $3,424,987.50. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 137,517 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,446,545.55. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 753,274 shares of company stock valued at $40,434,124. Corporate insiders own 1.60% of the company’s stock.

About Olin

Olin Corporation manufactures and distributes chemical products in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls; Epoxy; and Winchester. The Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls segment offers chlorine and caustic soda, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomers, methyl chloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, bleach products, potassium hydroxide, and chlorinated organics intermediates and solvents.