Short Interest in Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) Increases By 17.2%

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,320,000 shares, a growth of 17.2% from the March 15th total of 4,540,000 shares. Approximately 3.3% of the company’s stock are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 2,050,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.6 days.

Huntsman Stock Performance

HUN opened at $24.01 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $4.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.30 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a fifty day moving average of $25.22 and a 200 day moving average of $24.64. Huntsman has a fifty-two week low of $22.14 and a fifty-two week high of $29.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48, a quick ratio of 1.23 and a current ratio of 1.97.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.07). Huntsman had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 1.92%. The company had revenue of $1.40 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $0.04 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Huntsman will post 0.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.25 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. This is a positive change from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. Huntsman’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 188.68%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Huntsman

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Washington Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in Huntsman during the first quarter valued at $406,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 1.7% in the 1st quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 151,536 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,944,000 after acquiring an additional 2,500 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 44.0% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,115 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $55,000 after acquiring an additional 646 shares during the last quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Huntsman by 5.6% in the 1st quarter. Butensky & Cohen Financial Security Inc. now owns 152,094 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $3,959,000 after acquiring an additional 8,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Quadrature Capital Ltd increased its stake in Huntsman by 123.8% in the 4th quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd now owns 55,204 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $1,387,000 after buying an additional 30,537 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lowered their price objective on shares of Huntsman from $30.00 to $29.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 24th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $20.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a report on Friday, February 23rd. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on shares of Huntsman from $25.00 to $28.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Huntsman from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $32.00 in a research note on Friday, February 23rd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Huntsman presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $26.55.

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.