Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Shares Bought by Ieq Capital LLC

Ieq Capital LLC lifted its stake in shares of Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) by 390.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 79,230 shares of the basic materials company’s stock after acquiring an additional 63,085 shares during the period. Ieq Capital LLC’s holdings in Huntsman were worth $1,429,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Huntsman by 10.3% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,342,478 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $32,488,000 after purchasing an additional 124,841 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Montreal Can increased its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 152.7% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Montreal Can now owns 99,405 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $2,440,000 after buying an additional 60,072 shares during the last quarter. First Hawaiian Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Huntsman during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $569,000. ING Groep NV acquired a new position in Huntsman in the third quarter valued at approximately $5,317,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in Huntsman by 49.9% in the third quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 31,783 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $769,000 after acquiring an additional 10,582 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently commented on HUN. UBS Group decreased their price target on Huntsman from $24.00 to $23.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, November 5th. Alembic Global Advisors cut shares of Huntsman from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on shares of Huntsman from $25.00 to $22.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $24.00 to $20.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, January 13th. Finally, Mizuho dropped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $23.00 to $21.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Huntsman currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $21.63.

Huntsman Stock Performance

NYSE:HUN opened at $17.58 on Tuesday. Huntsman Co. has a 52 week low of $15.67 and a 52 week high of $27.01. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.37 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.07. The company has a quick ratio of 0.83, a current ratio of 1.36 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48. The company has a market cap of $3.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -15.98 and a beta of 0.95.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, February 17th. The basic materials company reported ($0.25) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.07) by ($0.18). Huntsman had a negative net margin of 3.13% and a negative return on equity of 0.39%. The company had revenue of $1.45 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.45 billion. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Huntsman Co. will post 0.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.25 per share. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -90.91%.

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.