American Century Companies Inc. Acquires 524,558 Shares of Huntsman Corporation $HUN

American Century Companies Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Huntsman Corporation (NYSE:HUN) by 229.4% during the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 753,222 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 524,558 shares during the quarter. American Century Companies Inc. owned about 0.43% of Huntsman worth $7,849,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in Huntsman by 345.7% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 9,926,971 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $151,982,000 after purchasing an additional 7,699,922 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman by 7.4% during the 1st quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,105,566 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $96,407,000 after buying an additional 419,009 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 6,064,044 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $95,751,000 after buying an additional 75,097 shares during the period. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its stake in Huntsman by 9.3% in the 2nd quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 5,310,768 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $55,338,000 after buying an additional 451,761 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in Huntsman by 0.4% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,689,225 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $28,027,000 after acquiring an additional 10,154 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Huntsman Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HUN opened at $10.04 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $8.82 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $10.08. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.74 billion, a PE ratio of -5.28 and a beta of 0.68. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.36 and a quick ratio of 0.84. Huntsman Corporation has a fifty-two week low of $7.30 and a fifty-two week high of $20.94.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 6th. The basic materials company reported ($0.03) EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.13) by $0.10. The company had revenue of $1.46 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.45 billion. Huntsman had a negative return on equity of 3.26% and a negative net margin of 5.69%.Huntsman’s revenue was down 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.10 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Huntsman Corporation will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Cuts Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be issued a $0.0875 dividend. This represents a $0.35 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently -52.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on HUN. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their price objective on Huntsman from $10.00 to $9.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 10th. Mizuho dropped their price target on Huntsman from $9.00 to $8.00 and set an “underperform” rating for the company in a report on Friday, October 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Huntsman from $20.00 to $11.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, November 10th. Zacks Research upgraded Huntsman from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 11th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group lifted their target price on Huntsman from $8.50 to $9.50 and gave the stock a “sell” rating in a report on Thursday. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and four have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and an average price target of $10.23.

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.