California Public Employees Retirement System Sells 36,126 Shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN)

California Public Employees Retirement System lowered its stake in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 10.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 305,909 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after selling 36,126 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System’s holdings in Huntsman were worth $7,687,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of HUN. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Huntsman by 5.0% in 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 period. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in Huntsman by 16.8% in the third quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 33,235 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $811,000 after acquiring an additional 4,772 shares during the last quarter. Strs Ohio grew its position in Huntsman by 0.3% in the third quarter. Strs Ohio now owns 523,851 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $12,781,000 after acquiring an additional 1,316 shares during the last quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC grew its position 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 during the last quarter. Finally, Strengthening Families & Communities LLC grew its position in Huntsman by 6.4% in the third quarter. Strengthening Families & Communities LLC now owns 73,275 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,788,000 after acquiring an additional 4,406 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

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

Huntsman Price Performance

Huntsman stock opened at $24.52 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $25.12 and its 200 day moving average is $24.66. 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 firm has a market cap of $4.24 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.27 and a beta of 1.14. Huntsman Co. has a one year low of $22.14 and a one year high of $29.90.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.06) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of ($0.06). Huntsman had a return on equity of 1.92% and a net margin of 1.65%. The firm had revenue of $1.47 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.47 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was down 8.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that Huntsman Co. will post 0.43 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This is an increase 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 dividend yield of 4.08%. Huntsman’s payout ratio is currently 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.