Traders Buy Large Volume of Put Options on Huntsman (NYSE:HUN)

Huntsman Co. (NYSE:HUN) saw unusually large options trading on Friday. Traders bought 40,557 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 1,514% compared to the average daily volume of 2,513 put options.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Huntsman

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. American Century Companies Inc. boosted its position in Huntsman by 33.6% in the 1st quarter. American Century Companies Inc. now owns 27,472 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after buying an additional 6,907 shares during the period. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in Huntsman by 42.3% during the 1st quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 13,414 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $506,000 after purchasing an additional 3,986 shares in the last quarter. MetLife Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Huntsman during the 1st quarter worth about $155,000. BlackRock Inc. raised its position in Huntsman by 0.4% in the 1st quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 12,672,792 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $475,358,000 after purchasing an additional 47,739 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Great West Life Assurance Co. Can grew its position in shares of Huntsman by 9.0% during the first quarter. Great West Life Assurance Co. Can now owns 14,250 shares of the basic materials company’s stock worth $565,000 after buying an additional 1,173 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 84.81% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

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

Huntsman Price Performance

NYSE:HUN opened at $23.72 on Friday. Huntsman has a 52 week low of $22.14 and a 52 week high of $29.90. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $25.20 and its two-hundred day moving average is $24.62. The company has a market capitalization of $4.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.76 and a beta of 1.12. The company has a quick ratio of 1.23, a current ratio of 1.97 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.48.

Huntsman (NYSE:HUN) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 22nd. The basic materials company reported ($0.21) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.14) by ($0.07). The company had revenue of $1.40 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.33 billion. Huntsman had a net margin of 1.65% and a return on equity of 1.92%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 15.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.04 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Huntsman will post 0.47 EPS for the current year.

Huntsman Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Huntsman’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.24. This represents a $1.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.22%. Huntsman’s payout ratio is presently 188.68%.

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.