Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) Receives Average Recommendation of “Reduce” from Analysts

Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Reduce” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. Four analysts have rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and two have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $11.00.

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on Huntsman from $12.00 to $10.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “sell (d)” rating on shares of Huntsman in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on Huntsman from $13.00 to $9.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, August 5th. Bank of America reissued an “underperform” rating and set a $8.00 target price (down from $9.00) on shares of Huntsman in a research note on Tuesday. Finally, Mizuho lowered their target price on Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, October 3rd.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Huntsman

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HUN. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 345.7% during the 1st quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,926,971 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,982,000 after acquiring an additional 7,699,922 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd bought a new position in shares of Huntsman during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,953,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Huntsman during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $21,651,000. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 1,673.4% during the 2nd quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,921,233 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $20,019,000 after acquiring an additional 1,812,896 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Huntsman by 97.0% in the first quarter. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. now owns 2,137,285 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $33,748,000 after buying an additional 1,052,127 shares in the last quarter. 84.81% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Huntsman Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HUN opened at $8.22 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $1.43 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -4.22 and a beta of 0.64. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $9.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $11.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.43 and a quick ratio of 0.85. Huntsman has a fifty-two week low of $7.74 and a fifty-two week high of $23.98.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, July 31st. The basic materials company reported ($0.20) earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.15) by ($0.05). Huntsman had a negative net margin of 5.75% and a negative return on equity of 2.48%. The firm had revenue of $1.46 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.51 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.14 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Huntsman will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current year.

Huntsman Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 12.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, September 15th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -51.28%.

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.