Olin (NYSE:OLN) Rating Lowered to “Sector Perform” at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada cut shares of Olin (NYSE:OLN) from an outperform rating to a sector perform rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has $30.00 price objective on the specialty chemicals company’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $45.00.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Olin from $50.00 to $47.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, October 29th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Olin from $35.00 to $34.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, January 31st. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on Olin from $41.00 to $31.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 13th. KeyCorp lowered their price objective on shares of Olin from $50.00 to $40.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday. Finally, Citigroup cut their target price on shares of Olin from $48.00 to $45.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Olin presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $41.75.

Olin Trading Up 0.0 %

Olin stock opened at $27.76 on Tuesday. Olin has a one year low of $27.15 and a one year high of $60.60. The business’s fifty day moving average is $34.92 and its 200 day moving average is $40.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $3.24 billion, a PE ratio of 30.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.69 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.32, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 0.77.

Olin (NYSE:OLN) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $0.09 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.01) by $0.10. Olin had a net margin of 1.66% and a return on equity of 5.10%. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Olin will post 2.47 EPS for the current year.

Olin declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, December 12th that allows the company to repurchase $2.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the specialty chemicals company to repurchase up to 45% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Olin news, VP R Nichole Sumner sold 10,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $43.75, for a total transaction of $459,375.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now owns 24,056 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,052,450. This represents a 30.39 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 1.80% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Olin

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in OLN. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Olin by 6.4% in the 3rd quarter. Hotchkis & Wiley Capital Management LLC now owns 8,838,988 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $424,095,000 after acquiring an additional 531,330 shares during the last quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Olin by 24.8% in the third quarter. Pzena Investment Management LLC now owns 3,452,708 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $165,661,000 after purchasing an additional 685,710 shares in the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its position in Olin by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 1,305,521 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $44,127,000 after purchasing an additional 97,980 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its stake in Olin by 2.9% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 1,295,699 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $62,168,000 after purchasing an additional 37,043 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Olin by 19.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,073,087 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $51,015,000 after purchasing an additional 172,768 shares during the last quarter. 88.67% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Olin Company Profile

Olin Corporation manufactures and distributes chemical products in the United States, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Canada. It operates through three segments: Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls; Epoxy; and Winchester. The Chlor Alkali Products and Vinyls segment offers chlorine and caustic soda, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride monomers, methyl chloride, methylene chloride, chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, perchloroethylene, hydrochloric acid, hydrogen, bleach products, potassium hydroxide, and chlorinated organics intermediates and solvents.