AdvanSix (NYSE:ASIX) Stock Price Up 6.3% After Dividend Announcement

AdvanSix Inc. (NYSE:ASIX)’s stock price traded up 6.3% during mid-day trading on Monday after the company announced a dividend. The stock traded as high as $23.53 and last traded at $23.53. 107,182 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 29% from the average session volume of 149,980 shares. The stock had previously closed at $22.13.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, May 28th. Investors of record on Tuesday, May 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.16 per share. This represents a $0.64 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.68%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, May 13th. AdvanSix’s dividend payout ratio is currently 2,134.04%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Stifel Nicolaus reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $40.00 price objective on shares of AdvanSix in a research note on Tuesday, April 9th.

AdvanSix Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $640.76 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of 796.93 and a beta of 1.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34, a current ratio of 1.38 and a quick ratio of 0.71. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $26.79 and a 200 day simple moving average of $27.00.

AdvanSix (NYSE:ASIX) last posted its earnings results on Friday, February 16th. The company reported ($0.17) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of ($0.19) by $0.02. AdvanSix had a net margin of 0.15% and a return on equity of 0.06%. The business had revenue of $382.21 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $335.80 million. On average, sell-side analysts expect that AdvanSix Inc. will post 1.04 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at AdvanSix

In other news, SVP Achilles B. Kintiroglou sold 4,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total value of $111,200.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 42,996 shares in the company, valued at $1,195,288.80. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, SVP Achilles B. Kintiroglou sold 4,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.80, for a total transaction of $111,200.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 42,996 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,195,288.80. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Erin N. Kane sold 1,385 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, April 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.96, for a total transaction of $38,724.60. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 556,370 shares in the company, valued at $15,556,105.20. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 21,048 shares of company stock worth $578,848 in the last 90 days. 5.20% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On AdvanSix

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Copeland Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of AdvanSix during the 4th quarter worth about $27,000. Quadrature Capital Ltd bought a new stake in shares of AdvanSix in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $204,000. Aigen Investment Management LP bought a new position in shares of AdvanSix during the 4th quarter worth approximately $208,000. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its stake in AdvanSix by 32.5% in the 3rd quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 7,062 shares of the company’s stock valued at $219,000 after buying an additional 1,732 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Everence Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in AdvanSix in the fourth quarter valued at $234,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 86.39% of the company’s stock.

AdvanSix Company Profile

AdvanSix Inc engages in the manufacture and sale of polymer resins in the United States and internationally. It offers Nylon 6, a polymer resin, which is a synthetic material used to produce fibers, filaments, engineered plastics, and films. The company also provides caprolactam to manufacture polymer resins; ammonium sulfate fertilizers to distributors, farm cooperatives, and retailers; and acetone that are used in the production of adhesives, paints, coatings, solvents, herbicides, and engineered plastic resins, as well as other intermediate chemicals, including phenol, monoisopropylamine, dipropylamine, monoallylamine, alpha-methylstyrene, cyclohexanone, methyl ethyl ketoxime, acetaldehyde oxime, 2-pentanone oxime, cyclohexanol, sulfuric acid, ammonia, and carbon dioxide.