Braskem (NYSE:BAK) Hits New 12-Month Low After Analyst Downgrade

Braskem S.A. (NYSE:BAK) hit a new 52-week low during trading on Friday after UBS Group downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a neutral rating. UBS Group now has a $3.80 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $5.10. Braskem traded as low as $2.71 and last traded at $2.78, with a volume of 784102 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $3.06.

BAK has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of Braskem from $6.00 to $5.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, August 27th. Zacks Research upgraded Braskem from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Monday, September 1st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and three have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $4.40.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its stake in Braskem by 431.0% during the fourth quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 134,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $520,000 after buying an additional 109,433 shares in the last quarter. Squarepoint Ops LLC bought a new position in Braskem during the fourth quarter valued at about $164,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its stake in Braskem by 654.9% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 19,824 shares of the company’s stock valued at $76,000 after buying an additional 17,198 shares in the last quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC bought a new position in Braskem during the first quarter valued at about $58,000. Finally, Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda boosted its stake in Braskem by 1,136,346.5% during the first quarter. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda now owns 1,466,016 shares of the company’s stock valued at $5,644,000 after buying an additional 1,465,887 shares in the last quarter.

Braskem Trading Down 14.4%

The firm has a market cap of $1.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -1.04 and a beta of 1.81. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $3.19 and a two-hundred day moving average of $3.47.

Braskem (NYSE:BAK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported ($0.14) earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.70) by $0.56. The company had revenue of $3.38 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $18.76 billion. Sell-side analysts expect that Braskem S.A. will post -0.77 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Braskem Company Profile

Braskem SA, together with its subsidiaries, produces and sells thermoplastic resins. The company operates through three segments: Brazil, United States and Europe, and Mexico. The Brazil segment produces and sells olefins, including ethylene, polymer and chemical grade propylene, butadiene, and butene-1; benzene, toluene, and xylenes products; fuels, such as automotive gasoline, liquefied petroleum gas, ethyl tertiary-butyl ether, and methyl tertiary-butyl ether; intermediates, such as cumene; aliphatics, aromatics, and hydrogenated solvents; and specialties comprising isoprene, dicyclopentadiene, piperylene, nonene, tetramer, polyisobutylene, and hydrocarbon resins.