Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Two equities research 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 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $26.55.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on HUN shares. The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their price objective on Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a research report on Tuesday, March 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research report on Friday, February 23rd. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price target on Huntsman from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, January 24th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of HUN opened at $24.09 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $25.22 and a 200-day moving average of $24.62. The company has a market cap of $4.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.45 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.97. Huntsman has a 1 year low of $22.14 and a 1 year high of $29.90.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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). Huntsman had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 1.92%. The firm had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.33 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.04 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 15.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Huntsman will post 0.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.15%. Huntsman’s payout ratio is 188.68%.

Institutional Trading of Huntsman

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. grew its position in Huntsman by 1.6% in the first quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 13,441,732 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $367,766,000 after buying an additional 215,413 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Huntsman by 2.1% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 2.2% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 8,379,307 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $204,455,000 after acquiring an additional 183,734 shares in the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 2.4% in the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 6,463,817 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $157,717,000 after acquiring an additional 152,667 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Stifel Financial Corp grew its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Stifel Financial Corp now owns 5,719,453 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $154,540,000 after acquiring an additional 28,931 shares during the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.