Inspire Advisors LLC Raises Position in Huntsman Corporation $HUN

Inspire Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) by 1,996.8% in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 217,249 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 206,888 shares during the period. Inspire Advisors LLC owned about 0.13% of Huntsman worth $2,264,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its holdings in Huntsman by 1,673.4% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,921,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $20,019,000 after purchasing an additional 1,812,896 shares during the period. Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria S.A. acquired a new stake in Huntsman in the 2nd quarter valued at about $148,000. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey boosted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 6.5% in the 2nd quarter. Police & Firemen s Retirement System of New Jersey now owns 60,911 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $635,000 after buying an additional 3,699 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Huntsman by 0.4% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,689,225 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $28,027,000 after buying an additional 10,154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kelleher Financial Advisors increased its stake in shares of Huntsman by 5.7% during the second quarter. Kelleher Financial Advisors now owns 26,908 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 1,454 shares during the period. 84.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HUN has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, October 2nd. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and issued a $8.00 target price (down previously from $9.00) on shares of Huntsman in a report on Tuesday, October 14th. Zacks Research raised Huntsman from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Tuesday, November 11th. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price objective on Huntsman from $15.00 to $14.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, September 10th. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Huntsman from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, October 6th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have given a Hold rating and four have given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $10.00.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of HUN stock opened at $8.27 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $8.99 and its two-hundred day moving average is $10.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.85 and a current ratio of 1.43. Huntsman Corporation has a 1 year low of $7.30 and a 1 year high of $20.94. The firm has a market cap of $1.44 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.24 and a beta of 0.68.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported ($0.03) earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of ($0.13) by $0.10. The business had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.45 billion. Huntsman had a negative return on equity of 2.48% and a negative net margin of 5.75%.The business’s quarterly revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.10 EPS. Analysts predict that Huntsman Corporation will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Cuts Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.0875 dividend. This represents a $0.35 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Huntsman’s payout ratio is presently -18.42%.

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.